There does seem an element of existential freak out in the behavior of the Military Industrial Complex bagmen over Hagel’s nomination as if they know their world of ever growing Cold War era military spending on American overseas bases and wars of choice is coming to an end.

reuters.com

(Reuters) - Republican lawmakers clashed with Chuck Hagel on Thursday at a hearing over his nomination to become the next U.S. defense secretary, attacking his judgment on war strategy and occasionally putting him on the defensive during a heated session.

Critics in Congress have sought to portray Hagel, a former Republican senator and decorated Vietnam War veteran, as soft on Iran and anti-Israel, charges Hagel strongly denied in testimony at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

Republican panel members laid into Hagel, with influential Senator John McCain threatening to vote against him as he questioned Hagel’s judgment on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Hagel opposed surges of American forces.

Even before Hagel started speaking, James Inhofe, the panel’s senior Republican, called him “the wrong person to lead the Pentagon at this perilous and consequential time.”

“Senator Hagel’s record is deeply troubling and out of the mainstream. Too often it seems he is willing to subscribe to a worldwide view that is predicated on appeasing our adversaries while shunning our friends,” said Inhofe.

I wonder who he means by shunning our “friends”? Does he mean our longest ally, France that warned us not o start the second Iraq war? England, who only went to war in Iraq because Bush did and did not want to mess up the relationship?

Let the war pigs’ freak out continue…..