Ripping the Obama White House for trying to destroy his reputation, 69-year-old former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel came unhinged dumping on President Barack Obama. Forced out of his job Feb. 17 over differences on Syria, Hagel complained he lost respect for the president when he didn’t launch Cruise Missile strikes in response to Syrian President Basha al-Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons Aug. 21, 2013. Hagel lost site of the difference between commander-in-chief and defense secretary, a Cabinet secretary backing the president’s policy. Criticizing Obama for not attacking Syria for using chemical weapons, or for any other reason, is out-of-line for Hagel as a Cabinet secretary. Hagel knows better than most the consequences of toppling Mideast dicatators like Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, when, as a U.S. Senator from Nebraska, he forcefully opposed the Iraq War.
Hagel told Foreign Policy Magazine that there is “no question in my mind” that the president’s reluctance to attack al-Assad after his use of chemical weapons in 2013 crossed the president’s “red line” and “hurt the credibility of the presidents’ word,” said Hagel, sounding so illogical it makes you wonder about state-of-mind. Hagel knows that it’s the president’s call to decide on military intervention, not, as defense secretary, to interpret or criticize his boss. Hagel’s insubordination cost him his job, running afoul with Obama’s foreign policy team. Whether Hagel “butted heads” with National Security Advisor Susan Rice or not, Hagel’s views on military intervention in Syria were inconsequential to the president’s policy. Had Hagel got his way and driven al-Assad from power, Syria would have likely wound up in the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS].
Lashing out at Obama, regardless of misgivings about the president’s Syrian policy, makes Hagel look unstable. For one of the chief opponents of former President Bush’s Iraq War in the Senate, Hagel sacrificed his political career to honestly state his views. Obama rewarded him by offering him defense secretary Feb. 27, 2013 after former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta retired. White House officials were torn, as they are today, with the Saudi-backed proxy war against al-Assad, gaining support from House and Senate Democrats and Republicans. When GOP military hawk and GOP presidential candidate Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) calls for al-Assad’s ouster, it mirrors the Saudi-funded proxy war against al-Assad’s Shiite government. White House officials know Russia and Iran’s steadfast opposition to the U.S.-backed Saudi proxy war to force regime change in Damascus.
What’s so outrageous about Hagel’s sour grapes are the petty squabbles with Rice or any other White House official. Hagel knew that Obama sat on the fence when it came to al-Assad, essentially letting Saudi Arabia dictate U.S. foreign policy. Getting miffed over Obama’s reluctance to fire Cruise missile at Damascus makes no sense. Hagel’s been around long enough to know about U.S. foreign policy, certainly the pros-and-cons of toppling al-Assad. If he just examined his opposition to the Iraq War, including creating the dreaded “power vacuum” that opened the doors to Islamic terrorism, he’d get Obama’s logic. “They already had my resignation, so what was the point of just continuing to destroy me,” said Hagel, overreacting to the White House decision to see him step down. If Hagel has lingering issues about his career, they’re tied to the Bush-43 White House and conservatives on Capitol Hill
Obama administration officials went overboard to reinstate Hagel’s damaged political career, falling from grace with the GOP. All hands were on deck backing the Iraq War except Hagel, when the Bush-43 juggernaut led by former Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and a host of friends at the Pentagon pushed for the March 20, 2003 Iraq War. Hagel opposed the war not because he was certain about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction but because he showed foresight of what would happen. “I don’t know what the purpose was,” said Hagel, still complaining of White House backstabbing but pointing fingers mostly at Rice. Hagel’s over-sensitivity to White House criticism showed he wasn’t over what happened to his career during the Bush-43 administration.
Hagel’s complaints to Foreign Policy Magazine make him look like a disgruntled former employee. Whatever happened between Hagel and Obama’s national security staff, he was out-of-line reacting to Obama’s decision to not fire Cruise missiles at Damascus. With Russia and Iran strongly backing al-Assad, had Obama followed Hagel’s advice he would have driven U.S.-Russian relations beyond repair. Meeting in Moscow and most recently in New York, Obama’s finally turned a corner with Putin, forming a coherent strategy for ending the Syrian civil war. Even calling it a civil war doesn’t properly identify the Saudi-backed Wahhabi proxy war that’s put Damascus in the crosshairs for a new Sunni regime. “To this day, I’m mystified by that. But I move forward. I’m proud of my service,” said Hagel, showing zero awareness of his limited role as defense secretary.
