– ‘At odds’ with White House –
Although administration officials indicated Hagel had been pressured to resign, a senior national security staff member in Congress told AFP that was not the case.
“Hagel quit,” the aide said. “Hagel found himself at odds with the administration.”
Hagel’s experience was similar to that of his predecessors, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, who both complained after they left office of interference by White House political appointees, some lawmakers said.
Hagel had been “very, very frustrated,” said Senator John McCain, an outspoken critic of Obama’s foreign policy.
“Already the White House are leaking, ‘Well he wasn’t up to the job.’ Believe me, he was up to the job,” he said.
McCain said the administration had “no strategy” to fight the IS extremists and that Hagel had never been allowed into an inner circle making decisions.
Hagel had disagreed with the administration’s approach to Syria, writing a two-page memo arguing for a more assertive stance towards President Bashar al-Assad, his aides recently disclosed.
Apart from the air war against the IS group, the White House has also come under criticism for its plans in Afghanistan, with some Republicans saying US troops should stay in the country longer, beyond the end of Obama’s term in two years.
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