This morning, during NPR's Diane Rehm show, there was a particularly interesting conversation between Rehm and two of her guests -- Rutgers political science professor, Ross Baker, and Washington Post reporter, Jonathan Weisman.
DR: Ross Baker, I want to ask you about Chuck Hagel and his ideas as to what to do.
Ross Baker: Well, I think Senator Hagel has been, for some time now, extremely pessimistic about the prospects in Iraq. And I think he's been very frustrated because while the Republicans still had control of the Senate, his senior colleague, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, essentially had a non-confrontational view of the administration. There were no serious oversight hearings and I think Hagel was very frustrated. Hagel's been liberated now. Even though his party is in the minority, he's working with the new chairman, Joe Biden, and he's very exercised about this. This is something he believes is very much like Vietnam. Of course, his own youthful experience was in Vietnam as an infantry sergeant. He sees many parallels. There are many parallels between this particular stage in the Iraq war and Vietnam. It's interesting to note that the hearings held in 1965 by Senator Fulbright kicked off debate on Vietnam in a manner very similar to what's going on now.
DR: But what does it actually take to pass one of these resolutions?
Ross Baker: Well, I think it takes a lot of negotiation among senators. A great deal of what goes on in the Senate is not visible to the public. For example, the whole question of the inflammatory term "escalation" has been a source of some concern on the part of Senator Warner...
Jonathan Weisman: ...and that was actually taken out in the mark-up. The only change that was made in that last week.
DR: ...There was a piece in the Washington Post, Jonathan Weisman, that you wrote along with Ann Scott Tyson, about the impact of one soldier's meeting with Senators Dodd and Kerry. What happened? and how did that affect the two senators?
JW: Senator Kerry of Massachusetts has been pretty exercised about the war. But Senator Dodd has just come out like a firebrand on this. He came out with legislation a couple of weeks ago to cap the troop levels. He was actually incensed about the idea of a non-binding resolution. He felt it was inadequate. And in talking about this he mentioned a few times this young captain, Brian Freeman, that he met at a landing zone in Baghdad just before Christmas. I was looking into this case. Capt. Freeman was a 31-year-old captain, West Point graduate. He actually approached out of the darkness, approached Senator Kerry and Senator Dodd in the Green Zone. Capt. Freeman was on his way home for a short leave to visit his two-year-old daughter and his fourteen-month-old son for Christmas. And he stopped the two senators and he said, "Things are nuts here! They're going from bad to worse. I'm trained as an armor officer and I'm being asked to go out and do nation-building, democracy promotion, trying to be a civil affairs officer with about three months training. But there are State Department personnel who actually know what they're doing but they're not allowed to leave the base! The State Department officials say it's too dangerous! The troops just cannot do the jobs they were sent to do." Senator Dodd came home and was affected by this young man because he was very passionate about it -- he obviously felt so strongly that he approached... two US Senators he had never met. Dodd began talking about this unnamed captain that he met. And when he mentioned it on "Meet the Press," Capt. Freeman sent him an email saying "That was me." And they contined the conversation. Well, two weeks ago in this horrible incident in Karbala, insurgents dressed in US uniforms and speaking English and driving American SUV's infiltrated the base in Karbala and kidnapped four soldiers, killed them assassination-style, and Capt. Freeman was killed in a hail of bullets and grenades during the attack. The news of their death has greatly impacted Senators Kerry and Dodd. In fact, Capt. Freeman's wife got in touch with Senator Dodd. She was out of town and had heard from a neighbor that military vehicles were coming up to her house in California. She got in touch with Dodd's staff to find out what was happening. It was Senator Dodd's staff that found out that Capt. Freeman had been killed in Iraq.
DR: So you feel that has clearly motivated both Senators Dodd and Kerry?
JW: For Senator Kerry this was a personal thing. He saw in Capt. Freeman something of himself -- a young, energetic, politically-minded officer in a war. But where Senator Kerry returned from Vietnam, Capt. Freeman will never return. And for Senator Dodd -- this is a man who never really took a huge, forceful step as a leader in Foreign Relations. He is running for president. He has really been on fire since this news.
