US Senator Charles T. "Chuck" Hagel (Nebraska)

STATUS: POSSIBLE CANDIDATE. US Senator Chuck Hagel -- a decorated Vietnam War veteran and wealthy former businessman -- has cultivated the image of being an independent-minded maverick. Although he is a close friend of John McCain, and supported McCain in 2000, Hagel is himself weighing a possible White House run in 2008. While Hagel is pro-life and a fiscal conservative, he stands out from the other GOP hopefuls for his outspoken calls since early 2006 to withdraw US troops from Iraq. He frequently refers to Iraq as "another Vietnam" Here are some comments from a November 2006 column he wrote: "We have misunderstood, misread, misplanned and mismanaged our honorable intentions in Iraq with an arrogant self-delusion reminiscent of Vietnam. Honorable intentions are not policies and plans ... The United States must begin planning for a phased troop withdrawal from Iraq. The cost of combat in Iraq in terms of American lives, dollars and world standing has been devastating ... Our effort in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate, partly because we took our focus off the real terrorist threat, which was there, and not in Iraq. We are destroying our force structure, which took 30 years to build. We've been funding this war dishonestly, mainly through supplemental appropriations, which minimizes responsible congressional oversight and allows the Administration to duck tough questions in defending its policies. Congress has abdicated its oversight responsibility in the past four years. It is not too late. The United States can still extricate itself honorably from an impending disaster in Iraq." He also differs with the Bush Administration by supporting an end to the decades-old economic boycott of Cuba, saying the embargo failed to dislodge Castro and harmed Cuban civilians. Some think Hagel may be positioning himself to make an Independent run for President, but Hagel strongly denies it.