Breaking: Hagel fired? Update: Yes

[sweetwater5s9]

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.

“He wasn’t up to the job.”

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.

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.

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.


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[Byteryder]

Interesting,  eh?

[lakitss]

Resigned my ass; Chuck showed some sack and called out Barry's pathetic foreign policies and military budget cuts as well, and Barry doesn't like criticism or the truth.

Get ready for some muslim appeasing leftist to take over and finish the planned destruction of our military.

[sweetwater5s9]

Obama has to blame someone for his failures...

[wvit1001]

they come and they go all the time and with every president.  there's nothing strange or out of place with this announcement.

[sweetwater5s9]

So are you blaming Hagel or Obama for the failures?

[wvit1001]

I'm saying that they come and they go.  I don't remember seeing any failures.

[Truman62]

Chuckie can't cut it.
 
Get RID Of the dead weight Chuck.
 

[littleeye]

In the years to come Comrade Obama will be ripped by those whom he appointed to high office. Failure will be the legacy of Comrade Obama.

[sweetwater5s9]

Obama will be ripped by those whom he appointed to high office


He already has been...more to come I agree.   

[lakitss]

This is just lock step that follows the forced retirements of many military general officers critical of Barry's dealings with his muslim terrorist buddies, shredding the military's budget, and deliberate weakening our our armed forces.

Essentially the enemy within.

[takncarabizniz]

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/politics/article/AP-Source-Hagel-resigning-as-Defense-secretary-5913974.php


I think he and power behind the prez, Valerie Jarrett didn't get on too well...He was probably tired of her running the country from behind the giant curtain...