Chuck Hagel's Resignation was Not Publicly Expected & Rattled Washington Defense Establishment

[KoKo]

Whole article is worth the read...because my snips only can feature one limited part when the whole read give a better picture of the issues involved.

------------

Hagel’s resignation was not publicly expected and rattled the Washington defense establishment.

Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby had said after the Nov. 4 midterm elections that Hagel had committed to remaining in the administration for its final two years. At a defense conference in California earlier this month, Hagel delivered a speech about acquisition reform as usual and gave no sign that he was planning to leave.

“I don’t get up in the morning and worry about my job,” Hagel told Charlie Rose in an interview televised last week.

---snip---

More recently he has battled behind the scenes with Rice, even sending her a memo sharply critical of the administration’s strategy for Syria. Senior defense officials have complained in reports by several news organizations, including POLITICO Magazine, about the National Security Council’s micromanagement of national security and the growing centralization of decision making by the White House.

Both of Hagel’s predecessors in the Obama administration, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, have written books complaining about the president’s national security policy process, and other critics seized on Hagel’s departure on Monday.

Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey have sought to preserve maneuvering room for U.S. commanders to send troops to Iraq to help Iraqis in their battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

--snip----

Potential successors could include Michèle Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense who now runs the Center for a New American Security; Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work; or another administration alumnus such as Ash Carter, who stepped down as Hagel’s first deputy secretary.

Hagel’s tenure at the Pentagon has mostly been reactive. He launched major studies or reviews following the 2013 Washington Navy Yard shooting, scandals at military hospitals and revelations about cheating and decay within the Air Force’s nuclear weapons units.

He also has taken on Panetta’s initiative to integrate more women into combat units, but that work has been slow in the Marine officer corps and in the special operations forces.

The Army has just begun an initial effort to send women to its elite Ranger School; completing that work will be among the challenges waiting for Hagel’s successor.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/chuck-hagel-to-resign-113131.html#ixzz3K2LFZeNX

[TwilightGardener]

1. No, it wasn't, because usually mismanagement and mistakes precede a firing.

Or obvious acts of disloyalty, or some sort of scandal. I don't see that here. Usually you can see it coming, there will be public calls for cabinet officers to go. This does not sit well with me. Clapper, Brennan, Rice still have jobs. Someone needs to explain that to me.

[grasswire]

2. what is "acquisition reform"? nt

[Lurks Often]

3. The process of buying new items for the military

be it clothes, vehicles, weapons, ships, etc

[grasswire]

4. thank you

perhaps that means Hagel wasn't ordering enough expenditures for the MIC.

[Lurks Often]

5. Probably not, Congress has always been more then happy to order

things the military doesn't need or want

[WinkyDink]

6. So maybe the "Washington defense establishment" needs some rattling. I know it needs some de-funding