Obama’s Military Purge: Chuck Hagel’s Head Hits The Chopping Block

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 Any assumption 10 years old is out of date.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.”

 According to The New York Times, the former Republican Senator Hagel had been asked to step down from his post by officials within the Obama administration after he made comments in August that contradicted the President’s messaging on the conflict with ISIS.

MSNBC quoted an anonymous Obama administration official who said, “He wasn’t up to the job.” Another anonymous White House insider told The New York Times, “The next couple of years will demand a different kind of focus.” Hagel reportedly struggled to make allies within Obama’s inner circle and failed to provide consistent, clear statements articulating the President’s national security agenda. Critics claimed that he was too passive in his leadership, quiet during staff meetings, and too quick to let General Martin E. Dempsey do most of the talking on behalf of the Pentagon.

At one point, Chuck Hagel called ISIS an “imminent threat to every interest we have… beyond anything that we’ve seen” at a time when the Obama administration was trying to downplay the threat, offending administration officials. According to PJ Media, Hagel spoke at the Reagan Library last week and suggested that America’s military capability is in decline under Obama’s leadership. “I am worried about it, I am concerned about it, Chairman Dempsey is, the chiefs are, every leader of this institution,” said Hagel, notably omitting President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden from the list of officials worried about the nation’s military prowess.

Slate notes that many reports suggest that Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter or former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy may be on the administration’s radar as a replacement for Hagel. Democrat Senator Jack Reed has also been mentioned as a possible replacement, but a spokesperson for his office told The New York Times, “Senator Reed loves his job and does not wish to be considered for secretary of defense or any other cabinet post.”

President Obama said that Hagel had not been fired and that the Secretary of Defense had himself opened talks two weeks ago in an effort to iron out a resignation that has been characterized by both sides as “mutual.”