Sen. Chuck Hagel and Sen. John McCain Square Off on Iraq

By Mark Hoerrner

Both men stood on the cusp of a military processing operation in their youth, bravely carrying the image of the American flag and the prosperity and freedom it represents in their minds. Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a former infantryman, vociferously defended the U.S. role in Vietnam right up until the nefarious LBJ tapes surfaced and decided that he had been used.

Arizona’s golden son, Sen. John McCain, was a bomber pilot who was shot down in Vietnam and served 5 years as a prisoner of war before his release.

Both men have seen the gore and horror of war. They have shared experiences that many of us will, God willing, never know. Yet, on a subject like the war in Iraq, you would think these two would share similar views. The truth is that they could not be further apart.

"Certainly, in the case of Senator McCain," says Janny Scott, the nytimes.com writer who interviewed the two politicians, "his Vietnam experience is well known and often featured…Senator Hagel…the fact that he’s a Vietnam veteran is known but has probably played somewhat of a less prominent role in his political career."

Both Republicans, the two men have very different views on the continuing war in Iraq. Hagel supports a withdrawal and believes that President Bush is wayward in his duty to the country. McCain, on the other hand, support the President’s decision to send more than 20,000 additional troops to the region in a last-ditch effort to rout the insurgency and return the country to control of the Iraqis.

Hagel, who served with his brother in Vietnam, originally supported the war but through the study of history came to doubt the U.S.’s role in the region. Later, when the infamous LBJ tapes were released and he heard firsthand how the president had no intention of winning the Vietnam war, he became a vocal opponent of the conflict.

"The dishonesty of it was astounding—criminal, really," Mr. Hagel said in the interview with Scott. "I came to the conclusion that they used those people, used our young people. So I am very careful, especially now. We’d better ask all the tough questions. This administration dismissed every tough question we asked. We were assured, ‘We know what we’re doing.’ That’s what they said in Vietnam."

On the other side, McCain, who has actually announced his candidacy for the top U.S. office, has been perhaps the most prominent supporter of President Bush’s drive to increase force levels.

Mark Salter, a McCain aide who helped him write his memoir, says that McCain’s insistence on moving forward in Iraq is born of his former role as an officer and of his training in strategy.

"He very much believes you make decisions about force levels to support a strategy—and not the other way around," Mr. Salter told Scott during the interview.

McCain and Hagel both voted to enter the Iraq war but have both criticized the strategy and mission in Iraq. Now, the two senators stand on separate sides of the issue. The question, then, becomes what do the two believe individually about the end of the war? Hagel seems bent on pulling out of what he labels a "bad decision from the beginning," and McCain does not want to see another period in history where the U.S. suffers from a military defeat.