Hagel: White House tried to 'destroy' me
By Jacqueline Klimas (@jacqklimas) • 12/18/15 10:26 AM
Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the White House tried to "destroy" him with disparaging comments after he was forced out of the Pentagon's top job over clashes on the administration's Syria policy and detention center at Guantanamo Bay.
In an interview with Foreign Policy, Hagel described a clash with the president over his "red line" in Syria as telling of his broader relationship with a White House that micromanaged the military.
While Hagel was preparing to respond forcefully to Syria's chemical weapons attacks against its own people, the president told him that the U.S. would not respond. In the interview, which represented his first in-depth comments from leaving his post this year, Hagel said the complaints he heard from other foreign leaders convinced him that this move damaged America's credibility with the world.
"A president's word is a big thing, and when the president says things, that's a big deal," Hagel said.
Hagel served as Obama's secretary of defense for two years, from 2013 until this year, when current secretary Ash Carter took over. Hagel said he frequently clashed with the administration over transferring detainees out of Guantanamo Bay, and said administration officials got too involved with Pentagon decision-making. He also complained over interminable meetings at the White House and a lack of a strategy over what to do with Syrian President Bashar Assad. He felt painted into a corner over whether the U.S. would support rebel groups if they, while fighting the Islamic State, were attacked by Assad.
The lack of clarity about America's goals in Syria is a problem that continues today, he said.
"The administration is still struggling with a political strategy, but Secretary [of State John] Kerry is making some progress toward the right strategy," Hagel told the magazine.
While Hagel said he realized the friction between himself and the administration would require him to step down, he said he wasn't prepared for White House officials to trash him anonymously to the press after he had already resigned.
"They already had my resignation, so what was the point of just continuing to try to destroy me?" he said.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/hagel-white-house-tried-to-destroy-me/article/2578696
