Obama Wields Hagel Cudgel on Two Fronts

Confirmation hearings begin this week in the U.S. Senate for Defense Secretary-designate Chuck Hagel. Asia (home of the incipient "Pivot") and other important regions of the globe will be listening for specific references to their military situations, and it is to be hoped that familiar Middle East rubs do not occupy a disproportionate share of the discussion time. North Africa clearly has become a trouble spot of its own, though with obvious connections to the Mideast, and this too will occupy ...