He said that it is wrong to put American troops in the middle of a civil war, and that the US would not win a war of attrition in the Middle East.
Hagel made his comments yesterday to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which is holding hearings on the Iraq War.
In a highly charged day in which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appeared before the Committee, Hagel's comments led to applause from the Senate gallery. As a Republican who has been a staunch opponent of the war, his latest comments have been widely reported in a week where Bush decided to increase US troops in Iraq by 21,500.
Hagel attacked Rice directly, telling her that "...when you set in motion the kind of policy that the president is talking about here, it's very, very dangerous."
See the video of a Hagel/Rice exchange, keep a look out for Rice trying to claim that the sending of extra troops is not an escalation.
