Chuck Hagel was a huge mistake

He was the wrong man to lead the Pentagon in a new direction

Chuck Hagel
(Image credit: (REUTERS/Jason Reed))

"He wasn't up to the job."

That one sentence from an anonymous White House official is the final verdict on Chuck Hagel, who by all appearances is being shoved out of his post as secretary of Defense. It was perhaps his sad destiny all along to leave the administration in the most humiliating way possible, since he joined it in similar fashion, winning confirmation only after he was bludgeoned to near-death by his former Republican colleagues in the Senate.

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Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.