Can Elliott Abrams be stopped?

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Though secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel’s confirmation hearings were bruising, thanks to aggressive questioning from Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, it could have been worse. His staunchest critic was absent.

More than anyone else, it is Elliott Abrams who has questioned the former Nebraska senator's qualifications and character. Abrams twice called Hagel an outright anti-Semite, a smear other neoconservatives hinted at but couldn’t bring themselves to utter. So outrageous was Abrams’ slur that the head of the Council on Foreign Relations, where Abrams is a senior fellow, publicly criticized it.

If neocons despise Chuck Hagel, he can’t be all that bad

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 19:47:00 +0000

If the neocons in the GOP who brought us the Iraq War and conjured up “weapons of mass destruction” to justify it are against Chuck Hagel for defense secretary, Hagel gets bonus points in my book.

They’re the hawkish, bellicose bunch in the Republican Party — William Kristol, Richard Perle and Elliott Abrams — who shaped Dick Cheney’s and Don Rumsfeld’s disastrous foreign policy.

These are also the people who have supported Israel’s rightward lurch in recent years. They don’t want a two-state solution. They eschew any possibility of talks with Hamas or Iran. They favor building more settlements in the West Bank.

Salon.com > Elliott Abrams

Can Elliott Abrams be stopped?

If neocons despise Chuck Hagel, he can’t be all that bad