HAGEL HAD TO GO JUST LIKE CLINTON HAD TO GO

Obama fired Hagel. Everyone seems to be asking why. People all seemed to have a different understanding of what happened and why it happened. In my mind, it is not that complex; the President fired him because he was giving into the Pentagon power structure against the President’s wishes. His release was not as will orchestrated as his release of Clinton.

These are difficult times in Washington, especially in the Pentagon, for a president who refuses to have the military-industrial complex drag him around by the nose. We saw a dust-up with the military several years ago when Obama fired McChrystal. It is an ugly thing to have to say but the Generals were ecstatic that ISIS raised its ugly head, as was bomb, bomb McCain and a few other war mongers or neo-con element of the Republican Party. At last, they seemed to think that Obama was sure to realize he needed them again, which means they would regain the influence they once had in Washington. Obama specifically appointed Hagel to reestablish presidential authority over war-making policy, which he has done. The Constitution established the president’s authority to make policy and the military is there to carry out that policy. As commander in chief of the military, it is his duty to see that the military carry out that policy. As president, his duty is to uphold the constitution.

Think how that constitutionally established line of authority has eroded under both Democratic and Republican presidents but especially Republican presidents. How many times have we all heard both Bushes and influential people, such as McCain, and to know that they not only listen to the generals but also allow them to make policy? They do not even question their decisions “because they know best”. Think of how scary it should have been to know neo-cons were directing both the policy and war in both Afghanistan and in Iraq. Clearly, they were dragging out those wars with cries for more troops, occupation armies, surges, expansion of land forces into neighboring countries, etc. For years, the presidents had been dutifully nodding their heads in agreement. The Republican Party were prepared to continue this upside down arrangement with the nomination of McCain and again with the hoped for election of Mitt Romney in 2010; Romney’s top advisors announced, without shame and while his wife was measuring the drapes in the White House, that every one of his top advisors would be George W. Bush no-cons.

Then Obama happened. The people were tired of war. We had a president who not only knew the constitution but also came to understand the mode of warfare was changing and that he needed a secretary of Defense who understood that as well. The stories of the drones, as was the use of the CIA, were at the heart of that change. For example, drones and seal teams could cross sovereign boundaries that whole armies could not cross. The CIA supplied target information on individual terrorist and the President authorized them—General were not operationally involved. Nevertheless, the president realized the drone operation, because they were weapons of war, rightly had to operate out of the military sphere and not the Department of State where they were at the time. In addition, he understand he needed a State Department who understood the war mongering part Israel was and still is playing in trying to get the Untied States to destroy their sworn enemy, Iran; thus, leaving them as the remaining military power in the Middle East. John Kerry, as secretary of State, understood this while Hilary Clinton, with her New York ties, was too pro Israel for Obama.   

Chuck Hagel knew and understood all of this. Then ISIS happened. This president understands that ISIS can only be defeated by the people in Middle East and not by invading armies, his now famous, “no American boots on the ground” policy. The specific policy the Pentagon does not like—they want a policy of war. There is tremendous pressure from the Pentagon, from Congress, and from Israel on President Obama to start a massive “and glorious” war in the Middle East. Secretary Hagel was not as strong as Obama and could not stand up to the pressure of the generals. He was showing signs of starting to give in to the military like a government in a banana republic. He had to go. 

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