WASHINGTON — The debate over the Iraq War was reignited on Thursday when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took on Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel for his opposition to the surge of 2007.
McCain and then-Sen. Hagel (R-Neb.) were two of the most prominent voices debating the war at the time, with McCain backing the Bush administration and its neoconservative allies and Hagel part of the growing movement of dissent. And one of McCain’s favorite parts of the Bush strategy was the surge, which sent 20,000 additional troops into Iraq.
On Thursday, McCain attempted to re-litigate whether the surge was the right decision, aggressively pressing Hagel on whether he stands by his past statements. He quoted Hagel as saying in 2007 that the surge was the “most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam.”
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