I’ve written a couple of times before about Hagel. A good man with a fine background but not a serious man. Liked the perks of the office but not the work.
How did I know? I posted on it before. In Japan a military honor guard welcomed his arrival there. He reviewed the troops in a sports coat, slacks, open shirt with no tie, sport socks and loafers. He was dressed for a golf outing.
It was insulting to the Japanese a crucial ally. Doing that and unaware of the implications of his actions told me the man was not one who would be involved in the heavy work of leading our arm forces. Obama gave him the job because as a former senator he’d get passed easily by the other senators.
Obama now sees that Hagel is more a playboy than a deep thinking leader. Knowing Obama’s distaste for confrontations, Hagel must have tried him sorely.
This can only be a plus for the country. Having been burned once let’s hope we find someone up to the job. It is times like these we need such a person
I’m wondering. In your opinion, does reviewing the Japanese troops in golf attire rank greater or lesser degree of offense than the President saluting his guard with a coffee cup in his hand. One might say that wasn’t a serious jester either. Both were boorish and rude.
P:
When I was writing that I did think about Obama saluting with the coffee cup. I previously mentioned that and how I thought it was wrong. But it seemed to me Obama did it on the spur of the moment leaving the helicopter with the coffee cup in his right hand, not wanting to change it to his left, and just did a half-arsed salute still holding it. It was stupid but far from the level of Hagel who had to know when he arrived in Japan he would be reviewing the troops. He should also have known the Japanese are very formal people and expect proper dress and behavior in these circumstances. If he knew then he didn’t care if he insulted them; if he didn’t know they he’s out of touch. Neither conclusion instills confidence in him.
I once read this about what he said: “Goddamn four-stars just ramble on about ‘strategic oversight of combat’ and ‘stability operations at the theater level,’ I just want to know what the fuck we’re doing on Friday night.” http://www.duffelblog.com/2014/11/review-finds-hagel-actually-still-army-specialist/ That reinforced my idea he didn’t bring the gravitas to the job that Obama needs. Obama gets his belly full of general talk when he meets with the Joint Chiefs, he needs to get another side of the story from the secretary of defense which I don’t think Good Time Charlie was giving him. He doesn’t want to hear the usual refrain from the generals that the solution is sending in more troops like our old friend Gen. Westmoreland always told us but want to see other options. If Charlie was off to the links on Fridays and crusing on the Potomac over the weekend he wasn’t furnishing him those options and was letting the generals run the show.
Here’s an article written at the end of October that shows Hagel’s lack of control over the uniforms. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/31/military-upset-with-white-house-micromanagement-of-isis-war.html It served little good for Obama to have this type of warfare in the public.
Happy Thanksgiving.