Foreign Policy.com has an interesting take on Iraq and Hagel...

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2. Very incisive analysis of whom Hagel is, by Spencer Ackerman,

Ackerman posted that yesterday, but it is an honest analysis of where Hagel was and how he evolved. Given the somewhat excessive praises by people like Glen Greenward, I thought it was a good analysis.

This said, I get why Obama wants him, good luck to him.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/01/chuck-hagel-hawk/
Is Chuck Hagel a Hippie? Only if You Ignore His Record
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As defense secretary, Hagel would be hugely influential in the ongoing debate over U.S. missile defenses, intervening in humanitarian emergencies and the scope of executive power in wartime. Hagel tends to emphasize the limits of American military power, something that even his critics at the Washington Post editorial board conceded was legitimate. But that doesn’t make him a dove.