“We’re done with that”, declares Obama’s Democrat in Republican clothing. We should just really stop talking about who had the correct judgment to push for the successful military strategy and who said it would never work.

“Quit talking about, ‘Did the surge work or not work,’ or, ‘Did you vote for this or support this,’” Hagel said Thursday on a conference call with reporters.

“Get out of that. We’re done with that. How are we going to project forward?” the Nebraska senator said. “What are we going to do for the next four years to protect the interest of America and our allies and restructure a new order in the world. … That’s what America needs to hear from these two candidates. And that’s where I am.”

What Hagel’s not quite getting, or is but refuses to acknowledge, is that the two issues are very much intertwined. In determining who we want protecting our interests, do we want the guy who pushed for a new, successful strategy that brought victory within our grasp? Or do we want the guy who declared that the strategy would fail and then attempted to claim he had never denied it would work?

Another reason Hagel may want people to stop talking about the success of the surge? He, too, opposed its implementation and wanted troops brought home under the flag of defeat.