Hagel and Obama share a "hawkish" sense for scaling back war, Woodward says
President Obama will spend the first few months of his second term battling with Congress over gun control, immigration, and a potentially rocking confirmation hearing for his choice for defense secretary, former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.
In a recent op-ed, The Washington Post's Bob Woodward, wrote that Obama and Hagel "share similar views and philosophies...this worldview is part hawk and part dove...War is an option, but very much a last resort."
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Thursday on "CBS This Morning," Woodward explained that there is a "like-mindedness between Obama and Hagel about where the military should go, when it should be used," and added that they share a "sense of scaling back at the same time there's a hawkish side to it, that you have to be ready to use the military.
"The mind-meld between the president and Hagel is the key factor," Woodward said, to the success of the confirmation hearing.
In terms of how American engagement in the world will be characterized under Hagel's leadership, Woodward said, "It's going to be done in a much more careful way...the president, like Hagel has an aversion to war...in Obama's famous Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he made it very clear that war may be necessary, but it's always a manifestation of human folly."