Chuck Hagel

thumb|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, Charles Babington http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/20/AR2005122001488.html?nav=rss_print/asection 4 GOP Senators Hold Firm Against Patriot Act Renewal Washington Post A04 December 21, 2005 2006-10-16 2006 If he'd been in the military, he would have learned gun safety. Andrew Stephen http://www.newstatesman.com/200602270021 Deputy Dick: What We Don't Know New Statesman 27 February 2006 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. Foster Klug http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6149419,00.html U.S. Presses China on N. Korea Sanctions Associated Press (via The Guardian) October 15, 2006 2006-10-16 We are perceived as a nation at war with Muslims. This debilitating and dangerous perception must be reversed. Chuck Hagel http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/24/AR2006112401104.html Leaving Iraq, Honorably Washington Post November 26, 2006 2016-01-03 We have misunderstood, misread, misplanned and mismanaged our honorable intentions in Iraq with an arrogant self-delusion reminiscent of Vietnam. http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/26/hagel.iraq/ Hagel: U.S. should pull out of 'mismanaged' Iraq CNN November 27, 2006 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, http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ_EXCERPTS?SITE=WABEL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Excerpts From Senate Iraq Meeting The Bellingham Herald 24 January 2007 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, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012502086_2.html Hagel Ponders White House Run As War Criticism Raises His Profile The Washington Post 26 January 2007 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 Chuck Hagel Chuck Hagel Official U.S. Senate website Category:1946 births Category:Living people Category:Members of the United States Senate Category:Republican Party (United States) politicians Category:United States Secretaries of Defense Category:Academics from the United States Category:Political authors from the United States Category:Non-fiction authors from the United States Category:Episcopalians from the United States Category:Politicians from Nebraska Category:Georgetown University faculty