Today Mark Sappenfield and The Christian Science Monitor want to wonder, "How can Chuck Hagel fix military sexual assault epidemic?"
Today they wonder?
Today?
Where were they back in January?
From January 4th's "And people are pushing for Chuck Hagel?":
I'm not sure what they think a Secretary of Defense does. (The Foreign Policy in Focus pieces were written by two different people. We're being kind and not naming them.) The Secretary of Defense does not have sleep overs with the Israeli prime minister. The Secretary of Defense does not engage in heavy petting with the Israeli defense minister.
When you hear about rates of suicide in the military? That's something that the Secretary is supposed to address. The same with assault and rape in the ranks.
It was an issue this community could and did raise. Isaiah even did a comic.
"There are serious crises in today's military including the rate of suicide and the rate of assault and rape. Look for me to ignore all of that."
Let's hope Hagel's up for it.
He's now Secretary of Defense.
The press avoided the issues back then.
To the press, 'issues' were everything but what the Secretary of Defense actually does.
Next time, maybe they can leave aside the spin and the partisan bickering and address the actual issues a nominee needs to be able to address?
We hope Hagel's up to it. We really do. But we were asking that question before he was confirmed. It's a shame the press can't say the same.