Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is stepping down amid criticism of the president’s national security team on a series of global issues, including the threat posed by the Islamic Staet and claims he is having problems grasping necessary facts about America's military.
According to both NBC News (video above) and the NY Times, senior defense officials have confirmed that Hagel was pushed out because the administration has lost confidence in his ability to carry out his role. According to one senior official, “He wasn’t up to the job.”
The officials described Mr. Obama’s decision to remove Mr. Hagel, 68, as a recognition that the threat from the Islamic State would require a different kind of skills than those that Mr. Hagel was brought on to employ. A Republican with military experience who was skeptical about the Iraq war, Mr. Hagel came in to manage the Afghanistan combat withdrawal and the shrinking Pentagon budget in the era of budget sequestration.
But now “the next couple of years will demand a different kind of focus,” one administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. He insisted that Mr. Hagel was not fired, saying that he initiated discussions about his future two weeks ago with the president, and that the two men mutually agreed that it was time for him to leave.
Update: Bloomberg News is reporting that Hagel wasn't forced out but left in frustration:
Defense officials said Hagel had been marginalized in the administration. One defense official said Hagel had stopped speaking up at White House meetings because White House aides with less experience in military affairs than the wounded Vietnam War veteran often ignored what he said.
Instead, he took to phoning the president after returning to his Pentagon office to shoot down what he considered bad ideas.
