Thread: Breaking: Hagel fired? Update: Yes

Breaking: Hagel fired? Update: Yes

posted at 9:16 am on November 24, 2014
by Ed Morrissey

Barack Obama will hold a press conference later today to announce that Chuck Hagel has resigned as Secretary of Defense. According to the New York Times, his departure is not entirely voluntary, either, although their source claims he wasn’t exactly fired:

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is stepping down under pressure, the first cabinet-level casualty of the collapse of President Obama’s Democratic majority in the Senate and a beleaguered national security team that has struggled to stay ahead of an onslaught of global crises.

The president, who is expected to announce Mr. Hagel’s resignation in a Rose Garden appearance on Monday, made the decision to ask his defense secretary — the sole Republican on his national security team — to step down last Friday after a series of meetings over the past two weeks, senior administration officials said.

The officials described Mr. Obama’s decision to remove Mr. Hagel, 68, as a recognition that the threat from the Islamic State would require a different kind of skills than those that Mr. Hagel was brought on to employ. A Republican with military experience who was skeptical about the Iraq war, Mr. Hagel came in to manage the Afghanistan combat withdrawal and the shrinking Pentagon budget in the era of budget sequestration.

But now “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 he 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.

That doesn’t sound like a mutual agreement. Making the point that Hagel isn’t a wartime SecDef to the media makes it sound very much like this was a demand for a resignation. That’s what “Mr. Obama’s decison to remove Mr. Hagel” means — Obama canned him. It’s a little silly to pretend otherwise.

With that said, why now? The White House has been fumbling on ISIS and Afghanistan for months now, if not during Hagel’s entire tenure. Obama denied that ISIS was a threat and kept insisting that the US would pull out of Afghanistan on schedule. Only in the last few weeks has that posture changed, and it’s far from clear that Hagel was the problem in either case. Hagel’s Defense Intelligence group had been warning Congress and Obama since January of the grave danger ISIS posed, and it was the military that wanted a broader mission in Afghanistan after the end of this year.

Josh Rogin’s take seems pretty accurate in this regard:

The White House threw Hagel under the bus then ran over him with the bus and then backed up and ran over him again. http://t.co/N1AhZl99j9

— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) November 24, 2014

Still, this is what happens with Cabinet Secretaries when policies go bad. Presidents ditch them as a signal for a shift in direction. In this case, it’s more than fitting, because Hagel was appointed by Obama as Republican cover for his unwillingness to maintain a forward strategy against radical Islamist terror networks. Hagel had long opposed the Iraq war from the ranks of the Senate Republican caucus, and lent Obama some cheap credit on bipartisanship without challenging him on policy in the least. Hagel had next to no qualifications to lead the massive Defense Department, and despite getting ISIS right has not exactly impressed as SecDef.

Now Obama wants to shift back to some limited form of the forward strategy, with an extension in Afghanistan and likely some use of ground troops in Iraq and Syria to fight ISIS. Hagel’s opposition to that kind of interventionism won’t make him an asset in the new strategy, so out he goes. That’s really not a great deal different than George W. Bush replacing Donald Rumsfeld after the 2006 midterms with Robert Gates. It’s just that the problem in the Bush administration was how to fight the war, while in the Obama administration it’s been the refusal to admit that there is a war going on.

The question now will be who replaces Hagel, and when. It won’t be in the lame-duck session; there isn’t enough time. That means Obama has to find a candidate who can pass muster with the new Republican majority in January, while still hewing close to Obama’s middle-of-the-road, hesitationist impulses. It’ll be interesting to see who Obama chooses, but don’t expect the GOP to block anyone who’s capable of handling the new policy. They will have lots of room to fight over Obama’s nominees, but not in national-security positions.
Addendum: Maybe this is how Obama broke it to Hagel:

https://hotair.com/archives/2014/11/24/breaking-hagel-fired/

Three US missile bases had to SHARE a wrench, Hagel admits as he orders top-to-bottom changes in nuke force

RATS! Obama Blames Chuck Hagel for Illegal Bergdahl Swap

Defense secretary leaving



Hagel initiated talks with Obama

President Obama announces that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will step down once his successor is confirmed by the Senate. "This decision does not come easily to him," Obama said. FULL STORY

• Live updates: Who could be next?
• Chuck Hagel Fast Facts

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to step down

By Jim Acosta, Barbara Starr and Alexandra Jaffe, CNN
updated 11:37 AM EST, Mon November 24, 2014

Source: CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will step down, President Barack Obama announced Monday
• Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, has been in this post since February 2013
• Hagel had a rocky tenure from the beginning and during his confirmation hearings
• The White House did not announce a successor Monday

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama announced Monday that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will step down from his position as soon as the Senate confirms a successor.

Hagel, who has served as Defense secretary since February 2013, was forced out by President Barack Obama, CNN confirmed from several sources.

During his remarks from the White House, Obama, however, praised Hagel as an "exemplary" Defense secretary, calling him critical to a number of national security accomplishments during his tenure, and characterized Hagel's resignation as his own choice.

"If there's one thing I know about Chuck it is that he does not make this or any decision lightly," Obama said from the State Dining Room. "This decision does not come easily to him."

Behind the scenes, administration officials told CNN there were a series of discussions over the past several weeks with the President, initiated by Hagel. The talks covered a "broader discussion of national security for the next two years," a defense official said.

Defense Secretary Hagel to step down

White House: Secy. Hagel to resign

Sources: Secy. Hagel pushed out
The two came to realize that "a different focus was needed and a change is in order," the official added. "It is wrong to conclude that this was a protest by Hagel or it was over policy differences."

The New York Times first reported Monday morning that Obama asked Hagel to step down last Friday, seeking to reassure critics of the President's foreign policy with the move.

Obama did not announce a successor Monday, a White House official told CNN. That official said that the short list to replace Hagel includes former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, a former paratrooper.

The move, White House officials told the Times, was meant to acknowledge that the new national security threats facing the nation — most notably the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — call for a different kind of leadership in the Defense Department.

"The next couple of years will demand a different kind of focus," an administration official told the paper.

A critic of the Iraq war, Hagel was brought on to oversee withdrawal from Afghanistan and a smaller Pentagon budget than ever before.

Hagel, a former senator of Nebraska, was the last Republican still serving in Obama's Cabinet and was a Vietnam combat veteran.
Hagel's tenure was rocky before it even began.

During his confirmation hearings, Hagel drew sharp criticism from pro-Israel Republicans concerned with his opposition to aggressive sanctions against Iran and for his criticism of the Defense Department as "bloated." His confirmation was filibustered before he ultimately won approval.

And his two years at the Pentagon have been marred by gaffes that occasionally undercut the President and an inability to sell the administration's national security policy.

He at one point called ISIS an "imminent threat to every interest we have," contradicting the President's comments just months before that the group was simply "junior varsity."

The administration has taken persistent criticism over the past few months as a series of national security crises roiled the nation, and the President's response was seen by many as flat-footed and inconsistent.

Hagel's departure has been rumored to be coming for weeks, and as recently as last week he dodged questions about his continued tenure at the Pentagon.

"First of all, I serve at the pleasure of the President," Hagel told PBS, asked whether he'd continue in the position. "I'm immensely grateful for the opportunity I've had the last two years to work every day for the country and for the men and women who serve this country. I don't get up in the morning and worry about my job. It's not unusual by the way, to change teams at different times."

Pressed on whether he felt he still had Obama's confidence, Hagel said, "Well, I don't think I would be here if I didn't. But you'd have to ask him that. I mean I see him all the time."

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/24/politi...html?hpt=hp_t1

NYT: White House Found Hagel Guilty of Not Portraying Islamic State as The JV Team

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BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
November 24, 2014 10:19 am

On Monday, the New York Times conducted a scathing post-mortem of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s resignation, pointing out that Hagel’s feeble attempt to employ tough language against the Islamic State in August clashed with the Obama administration’s ‘JV team’ rhetoric from January:

He raised the ire of the White House in August as the administration was ramping up its strategy to fight the Islamic State, directly contradicting the president, who months before had likened the Sunni militant group to a junior varsity basketball squad. Mr. Hagel, facing reporters in his now-familiar role next to General Dempsey, called the Islamic State an “imminent threat to every interest we have,” adding, “This is beyond anything that we’ve seen.” White House officials later said they viewed those comments as unhelpful, although the administration still appears to be struggling to define just how large is the threat posed by the Islamic State.

For a man whose only foreign policy accomplishment was opposing the Iraq War (after he voted for it) while serving with Barack Obama on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Monday’s announcement of Hagel’s resignation came with little surprise.

The administration declared that “the next two years will require a different kind of focus.”

Hagel served as Defense Secretary during Obama’s infamous ‘JV’ comments, which he did not bother to contradict until IS reared its ugly head during the Summer of 2014 and became, in Hagel’s words, “beyond just a terrorist group.”
http://freebeacon.com/politics/nyt-white-house-found-hagel-guilty-of-not-portraying-islamic-state-as-the-jv-team/

It looks like he is being fired for telling the truth about ISIS instead of supporting the immature fluff image Obama wanted to be portrayed.

Hagel Warned Of Rogue ‘New World Order’, Now He’s Fired


Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com

November 24, 2014

Chuck Hagel has been fired by Obama from his position as Defense Secretary. Hagel, a former GOP Senator, was appointed by Obama in early 2013 and therefore was scheduled to serve for the entirety of Obama’s second term.

Prior to his appointment, Hagel is said to have visited the White House in 2009, and personally warned Obama that he should look out for rogue elements within the Pentagon that were leading a ‘new world order’.

This was not reported on some internet conspiracy forum, it was a leading report published shortly before Hagel’s appointment, by Bob Woodward, an award winning journalist and associate editor with The Washington Post.

According to an account that Hagel gave, he told Obama: “We are at a time where there is a new world order.”

“We don’t control it. You must question everything, every assumption, everything they” — the military and diplomats — “tell you. Any assumption 10 years old is out of date. You need to question our role. You need to question the military. You need to question what are we using the military for.” Hagel is said to have told the President.
The Post report also stated that Hagel warned Obama about becoming “bogged down” in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, saying it would define Obama’s first term. Hagel reportedly later privately questioned the wisdom of sending additional troops to join the conflict.

“If Hagel is confirmed, as appears likely, he and the president will have a large task in navigating this new world order.” The Post report concluded at the time.

It remains to be discovered as to whether or not Hagel attempted to oust the rogue elements within the military industrial complex. The last straw for Hagel, though, may have been comments he made last week during a sit down interview with Charlie Rose at the Pentagon.

During the exchange, Hagel expressed a belief that US military action against ISIS was “indirectly benefiting” the Syrian President Bashar Assad, comments that were sure to have been unwelcome by the powers that be, given its push for airstrikes against the Syrian government last year.

Hagel also said that “The world is damn dangerous,” adding that the US military is unprepared.

Hagel criticized defense budget cuts and stated outright “We won’t have the readiness. We won’t have the capability. We won’t have long-term investments that this institution requires to stay ahead of everybody else, as we have since World War II, with the technological edge, with the ability to continue to recruit and retain the best people.”



Hagel was also critical of US foreign policy, noting that “policies are predicated on historical knowledge and cultural awareness and all that goes into that. Have we made mistakes over a series of many years? Yeah, I think we have. I think anybody would agree to that.”

In short, Hagel is no longer in a job because he alluded to rogue globalist elements within the US military, criticized the long imperial march to war, and admitted to detrimental blowback in the ‘war on terror’. Yeah, that’ll do it.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/hagel-wa...hes-fired.html

November 24, 2014
Defense Secretary Hagel fired

By Rick Moran
President Obama, seeking to deflect blame for his failed foreign policy, has asked Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to resign.
In Washington-speak, that means he's been canned.
CNN:

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will step down from his position at the request of President Barack Obama, who is seeking to reassure critics of his foreign policy with the move, a senior administration official confirmed to CNN Monday.
The New York Times reported Monday that Obama is expected to appear in the Rose Garden on Monday to announce Hagel's resignation, having asked him to step down last Friday.
The move, White House officials told the Times, was meant to acknowledge that the new national security threats facing the nation — most notably the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — call for different capabilities than those possessed by Hagel.
"The next couple of years will demand a different kind of focus," an administration official told the paper.
A critic of the Iraq war, Hagel was brought on to oversee withdrawal from Afghanistan and a smaller Pentagon budget than ever before.
Hagel wasn't fired, a White House official told the Times, but rather mutually agreed with the president that it was time for him to go. But Hagel's aides have said the Defense Secretary, the last remaining Republican on Obama's national security team, had planned to serve out his full four years in office.

Obama couldn't fire Kerry. He's a liberal Democrat who's very popular with Dems on the Hill. Hagel, on the other hand, had outgrown his usefulness. He had zero credibility with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, making him the perfect fall guy for Obama's incompetence.
The world is going to hell largely because of a lack of American leadership on a wide vareity of issues. Obama should stop casting about for goats and look in a mirror to discover the reason for his failures.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...gel_fired.html