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Obama makes Chuck Hagel the scapegoat for his foreign policy failures

Nov 24, 2014 4:55 pm By Robert Spencer

HAGEL-ObamaChuck Hagel is out at the Department of Defense, and one administration official explained that it was because “the next couple of years will demand a different kind of focus” – apparently one that doesn’t shed such a bright light upon the smoking ruin that is Barack Obama’s foreign policy.

Hagel may have sealed his fate last week, when Charlie Rose asked him in an interview about the decline of the U.S. military. “I am worried about it,” Hagel responded, “I am concerned about it, Chairman Dempsey is, the chiefs are, every leader of this institution” – as Bryan Preston of PJ Media has noted, he perhaps pointedly left Obama and Joe Biden off this list of concerned officials.

Hagel also said: “The main responsibility of any leader is to prepare your institution for the future. If you don’t do that, you’ve failed. I don’t care how good you are, how smart you are, any part of your job. If you don’t prepare your institution, you’ve failed.”

Did Obama take that as a reference to his steep defense cuts at a time when the world is on fire? Or did he object to Hagel’s surprisingly cordial relations with Israeli officials?

Whatever the truth may be, Hagel is out, and Obama’s gaggle of sycophants is abuzz with speculation about who the Great Leader might choose for a big promotion.

“Hagel Resigns Under Pressure as Global Crises Test Pentagon,” by Helene Cooper, New York Times, November 24, 2014:

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel handed in his resignation under pressure on Monday, the first cabinet-level casualty of the collapse of President Obama’s Democratic majority in the Senate and the struggles of his national security team to respond to an onslaught of global crises.

In announcing Mr. Hagel’s resignation from the State Dining Room on Monday, the president, flanked by Mr. Hagel and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., called Mr. Hagel critical to ushering the military “through a significant period of transition” and lauded “a young Army sergeant from Vietnam who rose to serve as America’s 24th secretary of defense.”

Mr. Obama called Mr. Hagel “no ordinary secretary of defense,” adding that he had “been in the dirt” of combat like no other defense chief. He said that Mr. Hagel would remain in the job until his successor is confirmed by the Senate.

Administration officials said that Mr. Obama made the decision to remove Mr. Hagel, the sole Republican on his national security team, last Friday after a series of meetings between the two men over the past two weeks.

President Obama called Chuck Hagel “no ordinary secretary of defense” during a news conference at which Mr. Hagel announced his resignation.

The officials characterized the decision as a recognition that the threat from the militant group Islamic State will require different skills from those that Mr. Hagel, who often struggled to articulate a clear viewpoint and was widely viewed as a passive defense secretary, was brought in to employ.

Mr. Hagel, a combat veteran who was skeptical about the Iraq war, came in to manage the Afghanistan combat withdrawal and the shrinking Pentagon budget in the era of budget sequestrations.

Now, however, the American military is back on a war footing, although it is a modified one. Some 3,000 American troops are being deployed in Iraq to help the Iraqi military fight the Sunni militants of the Islamic State, even as the administration struggles to come up with, and articulate, a coherent strategy to defeat the group in both Iraq and Syria.

“The next couple of years will demand a different kind of focus,” one administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. He insisted that Mr. Hagel was not fired, saying that the defense secretary initiated discussions about his future two weeks ago with the president, and that the two men mutually agreed that it was time for him to leave.

But Mr. Hagel’s aides had maintained in recent weeks that he expected to serve the full four years as defense secretary. His removal appears to be an effort by the White House to show that it is sensitive to critics who have pointed to stumbles in the government’s early response to several national security issues, including the Ebola crisis and the threat posed by the Islamic State….

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Comments

  1. duh_swami says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 5:18 pm

    He just didn’t say ‘yes’ loud enough. Rasool O only hires ‘yes’ men…

    • mortimer says

      Nov 24, 2014 at 6:15 pm

      Chuck Hagel is a good man. He told the truth to the American people about the incompetence and lack of planning re defense. Without strength, the jihadists and Iran and Putin and North Korea and China will test how far they can go.

      Chuck Hagel did his duty to his country knowing it would cost his job.

  2. jewdog says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 5:37 pm

    At first, I was skeptical when he was appointed, as it appeared that Obama had chosen someone who was anti-Israel, but once in office, Chuck Hagel earned tremendous respect from the Israelis and was an outspoken champion of a robust American military. Apparently, he was too good to be true for this administration, and now Obama will probably replace him with a more fitting Mini-Me, no doubt some faculty lounge lizard from Fantasy U.

  3. KrazyKafir says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 5:43 pm

    It’s an inevitable end for a hired stooge.

  4. cs says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 5:52 pm

    http://freebeacon.com/politics/nyt-white-house-found-hagel-guilty-of-not-portraying-islamic-state-as-the-jv-team/

    Interesting text here.

    Also the video of Obama underestimating IS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf7DPpPcMzI

  5. Jaladhi says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 5:58 pm

    Why would any self respecting person even want to be part of big O ‘s team?? It a beyond comprehension!!

    • Jaladhi says

      Nov 24, 2014 at 6:09 pm

      Why would any self respecting person even want to be a part of big O ‘s team?? It is beyond comprehension!!

  6. Wellington says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 6:02 pm

    Though I’m not a big fan of Hagel, compared to Obama he’s an ultra-realist. As for Obama, he is just wretched, absymal, destructive, lawless——-yes, I run out of descriptives at times in an attempt to accurately characterize this man, who has done more harm to the American Republic than any other single individual in all of American history. He’s beneath contempt and the SOB still has two years left in office. That’s enough time to do a lot more harm.

  7. ApolloSpeaks says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 6:08 pm

    FIRST FORMER SECRETRY OF DEFENSE ROBERT GATES

    took Obama to task for surging US troops in Afghanistan without supporting or believing in the mission. Then his successor Leon Panetta blamed Obama for ignoring his advisors and recklessly and precipitously withdrawing US troops from Iraq causing the rise of ISIS in that country and thousands of deaths. Now Hagel is forced to resign because he expressed alarm with Obama’s insane policy of diminishing and weakening US influence and military power in the world. What that means is that Obama in his nexy choice for SOD will settle for nothing less than an ass kissing sycophant, and that the dismantling of the US military will dangerously continue as the world descends into madness and hell-with Obama claiming we’ve never been stronger

    http://www.apollospeaks.com

    • ApolloSpeaks says

      Nov 24, 2014 at 7:33 pm

      REVISION OF THE ABOVE

      HAGEL’S REVOLT FROM OBAMA’S DOWNSIZING OF MILITARY BEHIND RESIGNATION

      First former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates took Obama to task for surging US troops in Afghanistan without supporting or believing in the mission. Then his successor Leon Panetta blamed Obama for ignoring his advisors and recklessly and precipitously withdrawing US troops from Iraq causing the rise of ISIS in that country and thousands of deaths and horrifying beheadings. Now Hagel is forced to resign because he expressed worry with Obama’s insane radical diminishing and weakening of US influence and military power in the world. Hagel who announced last February Obama’s plans of downsizing the military to pre-World War II levels apparently has had second thoughts due to the rise of ISIS and Russian aggression in the Ukraine. He sees the devastating consequences of these policies and has failed to open Obama’s eyes as he remains hell bent on staying the course..What this means is that Obama in his next choice for SOD will settle for nothing less than an ass kissing sycophant; and that the dismantling of the US military to pre-World War II levels will dangerously proceed as the world descends into madness and hell-with Obama going through the next two years claiming that America has never been stronger

      http://www.apollospeaks.com

  8. mortimer says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 6:19 pm

    Why have so many Defense secretaries disagreed with Obama? Obvious. Obama has been consistently wrong about political Islam and how many Muslims actually believe in it.

  9. duh_swami says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 6:24 pm

    How much stealth jihad do we need before we realize that’s what it is?

    • Wellington says

      Nov 24, 2014 at 6:36 pm

      I’d like to think no more, duh_swami, but for those not yet “Islam-savvy” it will take a great deal more and then the question of questions has to be will it then be too late? I don’t think it will be too late, but it’s going to be something of a nail-biter. Shouldn’t be because God knows there’s enough evidence out there to prove Islam’s multi-pronged nefarious intentions, but it’s hard for folks to fully realize that mankind could get a major religion that is, well, pretty damn rotten. This is the sticking point, i.e., the bulk of the West, hell the bulk of mankind (including a lot of Muslims), finally and irrevocably concluding that, alone among the major faiths, Islam truly sucks and is for suckers (including, of course, dhimmi apologists for Islam, respecting whom there seems to be a plethora of these days).

      Hope you and yours are doing well this Thanksgiving season. Take care.

      • cs says

        Nov 24, 2014 at 6:42 pm

        Even for me, it is very difficult to admit that Islam got it all so wrong, the Rambam used to call Mohammed as ha-meshugah (the crazy one) in his response to Jews worldwide. But we all most confront this reality, one day perhaps people will wake up of this nightmare, and understand that most of his teaching are pure evil.

      • TH says

        Nov 24, 2014 at 7:24 pm

        The real nature of Islam is no secret and has never been. As for its historical background and shakey, not to say inexistent historical basis, there is now a critical mass of solid scholarship. Then let us ask ourselves how it became a major religion. Anyone who has a minimum of knowledge about it knows that it happened thanks to the sword, massacres of millions of people, genocide, banditry, destruction of patrimony of humanity etc. In fact, more than a legitimate religion it is a dangerous cult which needs to be combatted. The official narrative of the life of Mahommed and the beginnings of Islam is readily available for anyone to read.

  10. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 6:58 pm

    Hagel ranks right down there with another misguided Viet Nam vet: John McCain.

    We know for a fact that Prez Barack Hussein is a liar. That was knowable before his first election, but nobody can deny that now. But he’s a dumbass, too. He believes in Unicorns, and everything he’s tried in dealing with Moslems has blown up in his face. That too is no longer deniable. Trouble is, it may end up that his dumbass mistakes will blow up in *our* faces, too.

    But one can’t criticize Barack Hussein any more than Dubya or Bill. All their Moslem policies was based on an unwavering belief in the existence of Unicorns. Not that America’s elites are any stupider than those in Stockholm, Paris, London or Berlin.

    If you hang out with trash, you can’t come out clean. Infidels always lose in their dealings with Moslems, which makes Barack Hussein a dirt-bag, but he’s no more filthy than his peers.

  11. Don McKellar says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 7:29 pm

    His replacement will be a moslem. In order for the wild all-out jihad enabling agenda Obama has completely ramped up to unleash on the world, it has to be a moslem. It will be hard to find scatterbrained leftists who are coherent enough to count on 100% now that Obama has completely dropped his mask and is issuing executive orders left right and centre.

    • Judi says

      Nov 25, 2014 at 7:07 am

      Don – you are absolutely correct in your assumption. No doubt one of his ‘advisers’ from CAIR/muslim brotherhood.

  12. Sam says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 7:54 pm

    Obama is a brainwashed arrogant idiot and he hates America. Next two years he will do all he can to damage US more allowing Islam to infiltrate more and more all over the world. WE still have idiot liberals protecting this IDIOT OBAMA. Unbelievable.

  13. Richard Holaday says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 8:24 pm

    Hagel should have never been confirmed to start with. He characterized his Vietnam Veteran comrades as drunked up, drugged up, hindrance, and worthless to him. He also stated he had little confidence in the officer corps. He commented on his invisible battalion leaders. I served in Vietnam in the same battalion at roughly the same time. I had great officers, NCOs and field soldiers. If Sgt Hagel tolerated the behavior he describes, he was part of the problem. The NCOs I served with would not put up with that behavior. He has been invited to our reunions. He has not attended. Purple Hearts are respected but the rest of the story does not play well. He would have to face some really good officers and NCOs who might take exception to his war stories.

  14. nacazo says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 8:55 pm

    et tu huffingtonpost?

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheldon-filger/president-obama-fires-sec_b_6214802.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

  15. Paleologos says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 8:59 pm

    Robert,

    The redesign of your web page is very good! Everything jumps right out at you!

    (Hopefully you did get a redesign, and this new look isn’t here because you were hacked! 🙂 )

    As for this thread, you are spot on, as usual. Hagel is getting thrown under the bus for two main reasons:

    1) obama is a narcissist, who can’t admit failure … not by the never ending administration scandals, foreign affairs fiascos, or the resounding thumping the dems took at the polls.

    2) obama is acting like any muslim does in a position of power: Supress infidels, and advance the caliphate!

    R/

    Paleologos

  16. Dave J says

    Nov 24, 2014 at 10:37 pm

    Hagel is guilty of excessive realism about ISIS so he had to go. He will be replaced by a kinder, gentler military commander.

    Obama is busy “negotiating ” with Islam and appointing Muslim Brotherhood members to government positions.

    • umbra says

      Nov 25, 2014 at 3:19 am

      obama will probably try to fix his next sec-def before the new republican controlled senate takes effect, especially his if candidate is an ROP (sympathetic) type.

  17. Salah says

    Nov 25, 2014 at 1:10 am

    Hagel also said: “The main responsibility of any leader is to prepare your institution for the future. If you don’t do that, you’ve failed.

    America. The Constitutional Republic. The RULE OF LAW.

    I… I, I think it might be… DEAD.

  18. Elisheva says

    Nov 25, 2014 at 4:59 am

    Hagel did not follow orders. When Israeli Defense Minister visited Washington he was supposed to be snubbed. :
    “When Yaalon visited the U.S. recently he found that nearly every senior national security officials could not make room in their schedule, Hagel still met with him.

    Yaalon had been critical of Kerry’s Peace Initiative and was quoted for his private remarks. Obama then targeted him as deserving ill treatment.

    http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Yaalon-snub-should-come-as-no-surprise-US-official-says-379737

    The DICTATOR, OBAMA, is not willing to tolerate any criticism and independent behavior. Hagel was chosen for his post because he seemed anti-Israel and in the end he did not act that way.

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