Leave it to Hagel

Could someone please fire Donald Rumsfeld and put Chuck Hagel in charge of this war? The Nebraska senator has emerged as the only consistently credible voice on U.S. policy in Iraq. If a dignified disengagement from Iraq is still possible, this internationalist Republican realist -- and not some neocon idealist dreamer -- seems to be the best hope for leading us to it.

On the talk-show circuit last Sunday, the two-time purple heart winner and leading member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said, "By any standard, when you analyze 2 1/2 years in Iraq, we're not winning.

"'Stay the course' is not a policy," Hagel added. "What I think the White House does not yet understand -- and some of my colleagues -- the dam has broke on this policy."

Drawing direct comparisons to Vietnam, Hagel said that whatever window once existed to add more troops and stabilize the country has closed. And if Hagel -- previously one of the fiercest proponents of that strategy -- is saying it, you reckon it's actually true.

The Senator, who has blasted the Bush Iraq policy as " completely disconnected from reality -- it's like they're just making it up as they go along" believes the time has come to find the least-worst way to leave.

"We should start figuring out how we get out of there," he said, "But with this understanding -- we cannot leave a vacuum that further destabilizes the Middle East." And here, Hagel identifies the cruelest Catch 22 of the war: "I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur."

This is the all too real, damned if we do, damned if we don't dilemma we?re stuck with. The trick is to find the least hellish path home. Hagel isn't claiming to have the answers, but he's at least grappling with the problem. Which is better than the president's plan -- which now seems to be: "keep fighting to honor the dead."