Why Obama Picked Chuck Hagel

Commentary by Lt. Colonel John Lewis Cook, USA (ret.)

The nomination battle over the next Secretary of Defense is now over and the winner is the Obama administration.  The loser is the U.S. military along with the American people.  The Republicans in the Senate put up a good fight but, in the end, they simply didn’t have enough votes.  The Democrats voted right along party lines and it was enough to push a certified idiot into the top slot at the Department of Defense.  

In all fairness, it was a brilliant move on the part of President Obama.  If he was after the perfect fall guy to cover all his mistakes as Commander in Chief, it is hard to image a better choice.  Chuck Hagel is, without question, the perfect guy.  He makes Obama look like a bipartisan statesman, reaching across the aisle to pick a Republican to lead the nation’s military.  However, Hagel is a Republican in name only, which makes him a Rino. So why did Hagel agree to do this?  It’s the same old story in Washington, DC, where guys like Hagel are very vulnerable to an appeal to their ego.  

To be sure, for a president to reach across the aisle can be a great thing.  President Reagan did it when he selected Cap Weinberger as the Secretary of Defense and that turned out to be a stroke of genius.  Weinberger literally rebuilt the Defense Department after Vietnam and convinced the Soviet Union that the United States would win the arms race.  In this head to head battle, Weinberger won and deserves most of the credit for the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Without question, he is the most successful Secretary of Defense in the modern era, dwarfing all those who have come after him.  A modest man with an incredible intellect, we may never see his likes again. His accomplishments are even more dramatic when you consider that both houses of congress belonged to the Democrats during this period and both houses hated Reagan.  

Unfortunately, Chuck Hegal is no Cap Weinberger.  Weinberger was a giant and Hagel is a pigmy.  Reagan picked Weinberger to rebuild the nation’s defenses.  And that’s what he did.  Obama picked Hagel to be a fall guy and Hagel fell for it.  Hagel is no Weinberger, no matter how hard the White House tries to spin this story.  His performance before the Senate during his nomination hearing was beyond bad, it was shocking.  Any man with any decency would have simply withdrawn on his own at this point, realizing that he was not up to this awesome task.  But there is precious little decency left in Washington and it all comes down to votes.  And the Democrats had the votes and Omaba got his guy and Hagel will get his day in the sun.  

In the end, it didn’t make any difference that Hagel was exposed as an anti-Israel bigot, regardless of the fact that the only true ally we have in that part of the world is Israel.  Nor did it matter that he was willing to throw Israel under the bus.  The only thing that mattered to the Democrats in the Senate was that this was Obama’s boy and they would confirm him, come hell or high water. 

Perhaps, in the end, it doesn’t make a lot of difference since no candidate for this office could perform as we would expect in today’s political environment.   Since Obama has managed to castrate all of his senior military officers, any candidate for the highest office in the Department of Defense would have to be a eunuch.  And Chuck Hagel fits this position perfectly.  This is something Cap Weinberger would never agree to, but it’s a different world now, where winning the nations’s wars in no longer a high priority, or even a condition for the job.  

What Hagel doesn’t understand is why he was selected in the first place.  If he had an IQ higher than room temperature, he would have realized why he was selected and might have reconsidered, but he didn’t.  Obama wasn’t about to select a loyal Democrat for this position because the coming heat is going to be very hot.  Hagel is going to have to take the heat for the eventual defeat in Afghanistan, not Obama.   Looking at it from Obama’s perspective, Hagel was the perfect choice, a washed up former politician from Kansas, who managed to get himself elected to the Senate as a Republican was a gift from heaven.  And on top of all that, he wanted the job.   So, in the end, Hagel is Obama’s firewall.  And, if necessary, Obama will not hesitate to throw Chuck under the bus, blaming him for losing America’s longest war, where Americans keep dying, every day, to prop up President Hamid Karzai’s interlocking criminal enterprise. 

Will the American public buy it?  The answer is yes.  Those few that were paying attention have already moved on, waiting for the next episode of Survivor.  This is just a blip on the radar screen.  

About the Author

Lieutenant Colonel John Lewis Cook, United States Army (Retired), “served as the Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Interior in Kabul, Afghanistan, with responsibility for developing the force structure for the entire Afghan National Police.  As of 2012, this force totals 157,000.  From March 2008 until August 2012, his access and intimate associations with all levels of the Afghan government and coalition forces have provided him with an unprecedented insight into the policies which will determine the outcome of the war.  It is this insight, coupled with his contacts and associations throughout Afghanistan that form the basis of Afghanistan: The Perfect Failure.

Click to read more about Lt. Colonel John Lewis Cook