Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel abruptly announced his resignation today. Charles Sennott, co-founder of GlobalPost and head of The GroundTruth Project, has a theory why, and it can be summed up in one word: Afghanistan.
Up until as recently as a few weeks ago, Sennott said, sources close to Hagel maintained that he would finish out the remainder of his four-year term. But then, last Friday, something changed: it was announced that the U.S. would be extending and expanding its military presence in Afghanistan in 2015.
"I think something happened, and I think that something happened in Afghanistan, which is expanding the role in Afghanistan," Sennott explained. "The only thing to conjecture...is that Hagel didn't like that and really was against it."
"The Obama Administration may have said, if you are not with us, you may be able to offer us your resignation," Sennott continued.
Sennott lauded Hagel's service as an infantry squad leader in the Vietnam War, saying his combat experience—combined with his unique perspective as the only Republican on President Obama's national security team—brought expertise to an administration that has thus far presented a muddled foreign policy message.
He lamented the loss of voices like Hagel's—like General David Petraeus, who spearheaded the troop surge in Iraq but resigned as Director of the CIA after it was revealed he had an affair with his biographer—as major setbacks in the ongoing military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We had these people who really know what they're talking about, Chuck Hagel being one of them, General Petraeus being another," Sennott said. "How can you lose—one through scandal, one apparently through a disagreement—how can you lose this gravitas?"
"This really hurts the country, I would say," he added.
For more from Charles Sennott, tune in to his full interview with Boston Public Radio above.
