Dan Foster asks, “what’s the point?”:

Okay, so what are you going to learn about Hagel in the next ten days? Is there some bombshell you’ve got ready but you need a little more time to cross the Ts and dot the Is? Are you using this holdup as leverage to get something else you want? Do you think peeling ten days off the calendar is going to prevent Harry Reid from bringing some odious measure to the floor? If the answer to all of these questions is “no”, just what the hell is the point of waiting to confirm Hagel?

Don’t get me wrong. I think Hagel is an awful candidate who reflects his would-be boss’s low regard for the Pentagon. I think Hagel’s ceiling — his ceiling, people — is ineffectual bumbler disliked by Pentagon lifers. And I don’t think he has a floor. But, if you’re going to let this guy get confirmed, who’s soul do you think you’re saving by waiting ‘til next Monday to do it?

Well, there may be more things like this:

Chuck Hagel, whose nomination is currently being filibustered by Republicans, reportedly argued in a previously unknown speech that the U.S. State Department is controlled by the Israeli foreign ministry.

Picky, picky, picky.

When you’re a leftist, the truth apparently hurts a lot. Yes, the inconvenient truth is that Chuck Hagel was in fact endorsed by Iran. In addition to being incompetent.

Obama is going to pontificate on non-proliferation tonight after the North Koreans tested a miniaturized nuke. Because his speeches are always so effective:

It’s not a pretty picture to present to the world at the start of Obama’s second term. Vietor, asked about the apparent failure to halt either Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear programs, replied: “How is that different than four years ago?” On the broader issue of nonproliferation, Vietor also noted that the U.S. and Russia had signed a New START pact in 2010. Yet Republicans in Congress have resisted further cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, suggesting this effort signals U.S. weakness, especially after Obama was heard telling Russia’s then-president, Dmitry Medvedev, over an open microphone that “after my election I have more flexibility” in making concessions on America’s missile-defense program. The North Korean test is likely to only stiffen GOP resistance.

As it should.

Thoughts from Spengler:

Muslim civilization is in catastrophic decline. It is passing from infancy to senescence without ever reaching maturity. Iran has one last bulge generation of military age men, born before the fertility collapse got underway. It perceives one last historic opportunity to achieve Shi’ite dominance. It won’t have another.

It is too much to hope that the establishment will draw the appropriate strategic conclusions from this “mysterious” trend, as Ignatius obtusely characterizes it.

The point of my 2006 studies in Iran’s demographics was not academic: I argued that a demographic cataclysm helped explained the apocalyptic mindset of the Iranian leadership, which felt that it had nothing to lose by betting everything on a Shi’ite resurgence under the umbrella of nuclear.

It’s certainly too much to hope that an Obama administration will get it, particularly with John Brennan as DCI.

What really happened?

I think he is ashamed. Here’s what I’ve been assuming happened: It looked like our people were overwhelmed and doomed, so there was shock, sadness, and acceptance. But then the fight went on for 7 or 8 hours. The White House folk decided there was nothing to do but accept the inevitable, and then they witnessed a valiant fight which they had done nothing to support. It was always too late to help. It was too late after one hour, then too late after 2 hours, then too late after 3 hours…. When were these people going to die already? After that was all over, how do you explain what you did?

You lie, apparently. And I don’t think he’s ashamed at all. I’ve seen little evidence that he has any sense of shame.

Is he a secret Muslim?

Given some of his statements in the past, it wouldn’t shock me.

[Update a while later]

Brennan’s evasions. Even if he’s a Zoroastrian, there are many reasons to not confirm him.

Is he toast?

Besides sitting on the board of a foundation that funds the NIAC, Hagel has had an ongoing relationship with the NIAC (and its precursor organization, the American-Iranian Council). As Ken Timmerman notes in the Washington Times, this has included giving speeches that rail against sanctions imposed to pressure Iran on its nuclear program, call for unconditional negotiations with the mullahs, etc. The NIAC, in kind, avidly supports Hagel’s nomination.

It was a monumentally stupid pick, even for Barack Obama. Of course, so is Brennan.

Why are the feds stocking up so much?

According to one estimate, just since last spring DHS has stockpiled more than 1.6 billion bullets, mainly .40 caliber and 9mm. That’s sufficient firepower to shoot every American about five times. Including illegal immigrants.

To provide some perspective, experts estimate that at the peak of the Iraq war American troops were firing around 5.5 million rounds per month. At that rate, DHS is armed now for a 24-year Iraq war.

At the same time they want to disarm the rest of us.

[Update a while later]

This seems related, somehow. Would Lincoln have droned Robert E. Lee?