Hagel’s nomination draws fire

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama named Chuck Hagel on Monday to lead the Pentagon, setting up an ugly confirmation battle as Republican opponents said he was too hard on Israel and too soft on Iran.

Obama’s choice of John Brennan to replace scandal-tainted David Petraeus as CIA chief was seen as more straightforward despite the counterterrorism czar’s defence of “enhanced interrogation techniques” and the US drone war.

The second term revamp of the president’s national security team was expected to eventually win approval but several leading Republicans signaled they would make it tough for Hagel even though he is one of their own.

Obama paid particular tribute to retiring Pentagon chief Leon Panetta before giving ringing endorsements to the “outstanding” Hagel and Brennan and urging the Senate not to dally in confirming the important appointments. “Chuck Hagel is the leader that our troops deserve. He is an American patriot,” the president said, heaping praise on a war hero whose wounds earned him two Purple Heart medals as a soldier in Vietnam.

“When Chuck was hit by shrapnel, his brother saved him. When his brother was injured by a mine, Chuck risked his life to pull him to safety. To this day, Chuck bears the scars — and the shrapnel — from the battles he fought in our name,” Obama said.

Hagel was also awarded the Army Commendation medal and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, the latter from the former South Vietnamese government, for his bravery while serving in the war. Some Republicans have never forgiven him for his outspoken criticism of ex-president George W Bush’s handling of the Iraq war, and his closeness to the Democratic president has seen him branded as a traitor by others.

But Obama, who wants to be remembered as a leader who ended wars abroad to set about the tricky task of building at home following a crippling recession, described Hagel as someone perfectly fitted to that mold.

“Maybe most importantly, Chuck knows that war is not an abstraction. He understands that sending young Americans to fight and bleed in the dirt and mud, that’s something we only do when it’s absolutely necessary,” he said.

Administration appointments are often tense affairs in the United States as confirmation hearings provide senators with opportunities to turn away unwanted candidates or score cheap political points, or both.

Hagel, 66, known for a fiercely independent streak and a tendency to speak bluntly, is expected to get particularly rough treatment due to his criticism of America’s “Jewish lobby” and opposition to some Iran sanctions.

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