WASHINGTON -- I ask to be forgiven this once for being so lightheaded as to think we may be entering a new age. A better age. A workable age! I actually do think it is a more hopeful age.
My reasoning is owing to the fact that two fine men -- two different kind of men from most of those who have led us for the last two decades -- assumed their jobs this month. It just happens that they are arguably the most important jobs we have in the nation outside of the presidency.
I liked the way they both behaved as they entered their important offices with new confidence. There was a gracefulness on the part of both of them, and a generosity of spirit that is the mark of men who have survived a fight in the distant jungles and know what war is like -- and are intent to apply their knowledge here at home. They know there is something wrong with old men who send young men to die without having known battle themselves.
When Chuck Hagel was sworn in as secretary of defense, there was none of the nervousness that he showed at his Senate hearings. In fact, he seemed relaxed, humorous and oddly fulfilled as the first defense secretary to have served in combat as an enlisted soldier. He said that at times he still has the mind-set of an infantryman -- and he seemed to march in there with that attitude.
He charmed many at the Pentagon with his humor, saying that while the Army's tough, bald-headed, unsmiling chief of staff, Gen. Ray Odierno, made him shake a bit, it was the sergeant major of the Army who "scares the hell out of me." Enlisted men will understand.
But if there were any clues as to the type of defense secretary he will be -- and there certainly were! -- then we must add them to my enthusiasm. "We must deal with this reality," he said as he spoke of the looming cuts in military spending, but the U.S. must continue to "engage with the world."
He would "lead with our allies," he said, in sharp contrast to the George W. Bush administration that arrogantly refused the help of NATO the very morning after 9/11. The United States was a "force for good," said Hagel, and that was exactly why it must work with and "build alliances among countries with common interests."
During his talk, he did not focus on his experience in Vietnam as a young recruit, or on the two Purple Hearts he was awarded, but he obviously tried to talk directly to the troops, saying at one point that he would "do everything I can to ensure the safety, the well-being and the future for you and your families. ... I'll never ask anyone to do anything I wouldn't do. ... I'll be honest. I'll be direct. I'll expect the same from you."
As to engagement with the world, he made it clear that he was no isolationist, but that "engagement in the world should be done wisely. And the resources that we employ on behalf of our country and our allies should always be applied wisely."
One wonders, at these words, what the world would be like today had Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld been similarly inspired when they sent tens of thousands of American troops to the ends of the earth -- to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and environs -- after 9/11. One wonders where our national debt would be without the $1 trillion spent in Iraq alone and the 4,500 Americans killed there. History will ever wonder at the sheer stupidity involved in such outrages.
Then there is our second man, John Kerry, who was sworn in as secretary of state on Feb. 1. Here you have a handsome, sophisticated, intellectual man who happens, as with Hagel, to be a Vietnam veteran -- a man who was shamefully insulted in the "Swiftboat" criticisms of the second George W. campaign. Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, had captained a swiftboat in Vietnam rivers, and the Republican campaign made it look instead that he was a traitor of some sort.
The former senator appeared thoughtful and generous at his first month on the job. He faces serious challenges in Syria, Iran, North Africa, North Korea, China-Japan, Bahrain, Central Asia, and God only knows where else! But he is focused on promoting trade and development -- these would be the major policies of the Obama administration -- and addressing anti-terrorism and weapons proliferation.
He hoped to move beyond the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said on his first stop, in Europe, but he indicated some hesitation in his words as to whether that would be possible, given the present situation. And indeed, the realities on the ground "out there" continue to be problematic in the extreme, with the Taliban openly attacking both Americans and American-trained Afghan soldiers, and no real strategy for victory even before leaving in 2014. Meanwhile, we are spending more billions in Afghanistan to repair infrastructure while American bridges, roads and schools rot in place.
Oh, one other thing about Kerry. In Paris this week, he spoke flawless French. In Germany, he spoke perfect German. When he goes to Italy, he will speak beautiful Italian. Where did we find such a guy?
If these two fellows turn out to be the men they have appeared to be this week, I redouble my enthusiasm. One has the feeling that both may understand one of the first rules of warfare, which is to understand the enemy, his mentality, his history and his system's structure. Thus you can know how he will respond, and how you must act and react. Add to this the president's understanding of the world, and we may be in for a good era ahead -- not a Golden Age, but maybe a silver one.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/two-important-jobs-filled-two-good-men-220214070.html
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