Chuck Hagel

Chuck Hagel in 2013

Charles Timothy "Chuck" Hagel (born October 4, 1946) is an American military veteran and former politician who served as a United States senator from Nebraska from 1997 to 2009 and as the 24th United States secretary of defense from 2013 to 2015 in the Obama administration. A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected in 1996 and was reelected in 2002. He declined to run for reelection in 2008. He is often characterized as a political maverick and moderate, similar to fellow Vietnam War veteran Republican Senator John McCain.

Quotes

2005

• I took an oath of office to the Constitution, I didn't take an oath of office to my party or my president.
  • On Bush, the GOP, and the Patriot Act,Babington, Charles (December 21, 2005). "4 GOP Senators Hold Firm Against Patriot Act Renewal". Washington Post. p. A04. Retrieved on 2006-10-16. 

2006

• If he'd been in the military, he would have learned gun safety.
  • Stephen, Andrew (27 February 2006). "Deputy Dick: What We Don't Know". New Statesman. Retrieved on 2006-10-16. 

• We are the adult power in the world. It is because of the United States, our action or inaction, that there will be a resolution here.
  • Klug, Foster (October 15, 2006). "U.S. Presses China on N. Korea Sanctions". Associated Press (via The Guardian). Retrieved on 2006-10-16. 

• We are perceived as a nation at war with Muslims. This debilitating and dangerous perception must be reversed.
  • Hagel, Chuck (November 26, 2006). "Leaving Iraq, Honorably". Washington Post. Retrieved on 2016-01-03. 

• We have misunderstood, misread, misplanned and mismanaged our honorable intentions in Iraq with an arrogant self-delusion reminiscent of Vietnam.
  • "Hagel: U.S. should pull out of 'mismanaged' Iraq". CNN. November 27, 2006. Retrieved on 2016-01-03. 

2007

• This is a ping-pong game with American lives. These young men and women that we put in Anbar province, in Iraq, in Baghdad, are not beans. They're real lives. And we better be damn sure we know what we're doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder.
  • On the Iraq troop surge of 2007, "Excerpts From Senate Iraq Meeting". The Bellingham Herald. 24 January 2007. Retrieved on 2007-01-25. 

• If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes. This is a tough business.
  • Asking his fellow Senators to support a joint resolution opposing President George W. Bush's troop deployment plan, "Hagel Ponders White House Run As War Criticism Raises His Profile". The Washington Post. 26 January 2007. Retrieved on 2007-01-29. 

2013

• I believe, and always have, that America must engage — not retreat — in the world.
  • Transcript: Hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense, submitted by Robert Naiman on February 1, 2013 at Justforeignpolicy.org, accessed February 10, 2013.

External links

• Official U.S. Senate website