Wow. Read this at two levels — first off, an intelligent awareness that the Pentagon is out of touch with reality. But at a second level, “rogue elements” is why Admirals and Generals have been relieved, for planning false flag attacks, and why Obama has the FBI all over flag emails in the months leading up to the election. With all the stuff coming out about the “dual” chain of Command that Dick Cheney still influences with the Bushes in the background, and the rogue CIA, this is really fascinating.
Rogue Elements within US Military: Defense Nominee Hagel had warned Obama
Steve Watson
GlobalResearch, 3 February 2013
According to an account that Hagel later gave, and is reported here for the first time, he told Obama: “We are at a time where there is a new world order.
“We don’t control it. You must question everything, every assumption, everything they” — the military and diplomats — “tell you. Any assumption 10 years old is out of date. You need to question our role. You need to question the military. You need to question what are we using the military for.”
The Post states that Hagel warned Obama about becoming “bogged down” in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, saying it would define Obama’s first term. Hagel reportedly later privately questioned the wisdom of sending additional troops to join the conflict.
At the time, Obama had announced a proposed deployment of over 50,000 troops to Afghanistan, based on recommendations from the Pentagon.
In response, Hagel is said to have noted “The president has not had commander-in-chief control of the Pentagon since Bush senior was president.”
Bob Woodward
Washington Post, January 27
In the first months of the Obama presidency in 2009, Chuck Hagel, who had just finished two terms as a U.S. senator, went to the White House to visit with the friend he had made during the four years they overlapped in the Senate.
So, President Obama asked, what do you think about foreign policy and defense issues?
According to an account that Hagel later gave, and is reported here for the first time, he told Obama: “We are at a time where there is a new world order. We don’t control it. You must question everything, every assumption, everything they” — the military and diplomats — “tell you. Any assumption 10 years old is out of date. You need to question our role. You need to question the military. You need to question what are we using the military for.
“Afghanistan will be defining for your presidency in the first term,” Hagel also said, according to his own account, “perhaps even for a second term.” The key was not to get “bogged down.”
Obama did not say much but listened. At the time, Hagel considered Obama a “loner,” inclined to keep a distance and his own counsel. But Hagel’s comments help explain why Obama nominated his former Senate colleague to be his next secretary of defense. The two share similar views and philosophies as the Obama administration attempts to define the role of the United States in the transition to a post-superpower world.
This worldview is part hawk and part dove. It amounts, in part, to a challenge to the wars of President George W. Bush. It holds that the Afghanistan war has been mismanaged and the Iraq war unnecessary. War is an option, but very much a last resort.
So, this thinking goes, the U.S. role in the world must be carefully scaled back — this is not a matter of choice but of facing reality; the military needs to be treated with deep skepticism; lots of strategic military and foreign policy thinking is out of date; and quagmires like Afghanistan should be avoided.
Read full article (above the Post average).
Phi Beta Iota: Actually, no President has been in charge since John F. Kennedy was assassinated and the assassination covered by his own Vice President. The only power that can defeat money is public power. The only way to mobilize public power is with education, intelligence, and research.
