Posted on 11/26/2014 6:27:08 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Last August, I flew halfway around the world with Chuck Hagel to try to see what made him tick, and why he’d been chosen as Secretary of Defense at such an unsettled, seemingly crucial period for our national security.
I watched Hagel in bilateral meetings with Southeast Asian ministers of defense, and I watched him take questions from American marines in Hawaii. I saw him in a bathing suit (he’s an avid morning lap-swimmer), and I saw him in a business suit, and I saw him in leisurewear on the interminable flights across the Pacific. I interviewed him twice, generating nearly 10,000 words of transcripts. And after all of that, the impression I got of him, as a person or as a leader, might be summarized as “smudgey.” Looking back on it, there was a pall of futility, maybe even mismatch, that hung over those two weeks, as Hagel, the stage to himself, failed to project any kind of personal force.
It was a weird trip, that jaunt to Asia. Hagel was due at a meeting of defense ministers from the ASEAN countries, being held in Brunei, and he made stops along the way in Hawaii, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and Manila to show off the Obama Administration’s “strategic rebalance,” better known as the “pivot” to Asia.
The day before Hagel took off from Andrews Air Force Base, however, Bashar al-Assad launched a Sarin attack on his own people, and Washington began to gear up for punitive airstrikes. It left the Secretary in the unenviable position of having to embark on a low-stakes diplomatic trip as the real decision-making was going on back in the capital.
(Excerpt) Read more at newrepublic.com ...
Propaganda....why would I even read this?
I fail to see anything new here. Everyone on this site new from the beginning that this was another Obama lightweight appointee. Another example of mediocrity. Another Psychophant. What were his qualifications? What did he bring to the table?
The leader who selects the management team is responsible. Not the management team!
another boot-licker appointment?
Ever heard of Google? Two Purple Hearts, started and built Vanguard Cellular, 12 years in the U S Senate. But obviously not qualified in YOUR humble opinion.
Good article but, like most of this type, it fails to give even the slightest credit (or blame) to the America hating cretin who appointed Hagel.
Thank you, the treatment of this hero by “both” parties has been disgusting.
Bambi using him as “Republican window dressing” and the cowardly intimations from his own partisans that he is a foreign agent.
All of course from people who took the opportunity not to serve in the military..
The fact that this is Obama’ third SOD tells me the problem is not the SOD, it is Obamas.
Th8is is spin. HAgel was well qualifg8ed for the position. He did not agree with the Presidents micromanagement of the SISI conflist. And he spoke out about it publicly. Obama will tolertae many shortcomings in huis staff ( Gadzooks look at Sebelius!) but he will not tolerate effing a hooker on government time or criticizing him.
Hagel criticized Obama. Goodbye Hagel. He was a good man in over his head.Hagel knew that Obama is indeed creating another Vietnam in the ISIS conflict, and well he should know as a Vietnam veteran.
This artcile seks to spin Hagel as incompetent and a “wrong choice”, a “flawed republican.”. Thats just not true.
BOTTOM LINE:
The Commander in Chief is the one who is NOT QUALIFIED and INCOMPETENT.
This was clearly a HIT piece on Hagel, meant to bolster that creep pos Obama’s firing of him.
New Republic seems to exist to kiss Obama and the left’s ass.
Hagel laid down with dogs, and he got fleas. He should have known going in, but he never was very bright.
Obama hires incompetents - like himself.
Agreed and emphasis should be added in the fact that this is only within 6 years and that Obama's leadership has been severely criticized by the two predecessors in the SoD chair. Obama and his fellow-travelers are antithetical towards the US Military and as such have a mental disconnect in dealing with it.
Nominally, he's a Republican. And he's dumb as a box of rocks.
That's about it.
Hagel, the great underwhelmed politico, was picked for the world role that Obama chose for the United States military - the great underwhelmed.
Now, Obama, after paying the political consequences for world reality not living down to his expectations, must chuck Chuck as a scapegoat for actually doing what Obama wanted - nothing.
Bashar al-Assad launched a Sarin attack on his own people,...Stopped reading right there.
Hagel also criticized Bush every chance he got.
He also defended all the gay moves being made in the military.
Not sure exactly what the guy ever stood for.
Exactly.
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