The US Defence Secretary, Chuck Hagel, has decided to jump before he was pushed and has resigned his post, the resignation becoming effective on the choosing of his successor. Mr Hagel never looked secure, or particularly comfortable, despite being a man who seemed to be admirably suited to the post. Things were shaky from the outset — he fumbled his lines in the Senate confirmation hearings and was never expected to be a war-time defence secretary as he is now. The departure of Mr Hagel will be seen as another nail in the coffin of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, which has been described by at least one commentator as “shambolic”. Going into his first term, President Barack Obama was a weak player in terms of foreign policy. He was reliant on wise heads and steady hands around him. Mr Hagel was the right man at the moment of appointment, and the wrong man within weeks.
The president and the defence secretary did not see eye to eye on several things. The latter raised questions about the White House strategy in respect of Syria and the vacillation about whether or not to join a shooting war against the Assad regime. Then Islamic State (IS) erupted on the scene and changed the shape of geopolitics in the region within half a year. Mr Hagel inflated the threat that the IS posed regionally and nationally to the US, much to the administration’s embarrassment and the military’s irritation. The last quarter of the Obama Administration is an unhappy one for the president, whose popularity has dipped ever lower. With Congress and the Senate both controlled by Republicans, passing anything but the blandest of legislation is going to be nigh impossible. The IS crisis is going to continue and there is no tidy end in sight. The wars that were being fought at the start of the Obama years still rumble on, peppering the sails of his legacy. Whoever succeeds Mr Hagel will have less than two years to mend a cracked pot, and few would bet on their chances of success.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2014.
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Mr Hagel was an intelligent, thinking person in a responsible position who was attempting to control the crazies in Washington so he had to go.
Pretty clear in hindsight that the region threat was spot on ... and there is little doubt that if IS kept on tract that it would become a direct threat to the USA.