WASHINGTON: He was packed off with the usual Washington finesse, including warm words of appreciation for services rendered, but US President Barack Obama ostensibly ousted his defence secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday after a series of military and foreign policy glitches and differences, including on the unbridled rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Hagel, the only Republican member of President Obama’s cabinet, tendered his resignation on Monday and it was immediately accepted, making him the first cabinet-level casualty after the mid-term election rout for the Democrats.
Although his departure was couched in graceful exit lines from all sides, broad leaks suggested President Obama had sought his resignation on Friday after weeks of discussions during which the two men disagreed civilly on several fronts.
Ironically, while the Washington commentariat cited the rise of the ISIS as one of the reasons for Hagel’s departure, it was the exiting defence secretary who warned about the serious threat it posed after President Obama had compared it to a junior varsity team.
Hagel called the group an “imminent threat to every interest that we have” and warned that it is “beyond anything we have seen.”
Hagel’s fellow Republican John McCain suggested the defence secretary was frustrated with his own lack of traction in the administration and the overall loss of US influence across the world.
Other pundits suggested Hagel, brought in to faciliticate downsizing of the military, was out of sync with the rapidly changing scenarios and thinking within the administration. “The president’s move makes sense. Hagel was brought on board to facilitate the downsizing of defence, but world events are causing a rethinking of the wisdom of doing so. The skills required to address the range of today’s very serious threats do not, in my view, play to Hagel’s strengths,” said Duke University scholar Charles Dunlap Jr, who specializes in warfare strategy and policy. President Obama has reportedly decided that he needed a new defence secretary with a different set of skills, and though he did not immediately nominate anyone, the frontrunners for the key post are Democratic senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, who has served in the military; Ashton Carter, a former deputy secretary of defence (who was on the short list as ambassador to India before Rich Verma was picked) and Michele Flournoy, the former under secretary of defence, who has also dealt extensively with India.
Expectedly, Obama praised Hagel as an “exemplary” defence secretary, calling him critical to a number of national security accomplishments during his tenure, and said Hagel’s resignation as his own choice. “If there’s one thing I know about Chuck it is that he does not make this or any decision lightly,” Obama said from the state dining room. “This decision does not come easily to him.”
New Delhi won’t particularly miss Hagel after a series of missteps at the start of his tenure soured the mood with India. It began with some inelegantly phrased remarks that suggested India was creating problems for Pakistan with its involvement in Afghanistan.
“India for sometime has always used Afghanistan as a second front and India has over the years financed problems for Pakistan on that side of the border — and you can carry that into many dimensions,” Hagel had said in remarks that came to be construed as a critical of India’s role in the region. A dismayed New Delhi, which had looked forward to working closely with Hagel, had issued a statement saying “Such comments attributed to Sen. Hagel, who has been a long-standing friend of India and a prominent votary of close India-US relations, are contrary to the reality of India’s unbounded dedication to the welfare of the Afghan people.” (IANS)
Hagel, a decorated Vietnam veteran, reached out to India with a visit in August this year, but his star was already on the wane by that time.
A return visit in October to Washington by his then counterpart Arun Jaitely was scrubbed because of the latter’s ill-health. (Agencies)
