Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was trying to give President Barack Obama a "wakeup call" over the administration's strategy on Syria, because military officials were growing frustrated, Capt. Chuck Nash told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
Hagel sent a memo to National Security Adviser Susan Rice last week suggesting
Obama's policy on Syria could fail, writing the administration needed to have "a sharper view of what to do about the (Syrian President Bashar) Assad regime."
"This is a last desperation wake-up call to the White House that you are messing up our national strategy. You are ruining our prestige in the world. And, we've got to make some serious changes," Nash, a retired Navy Captain, said Friday.
The frustration among the Joint Chiefs of Staff was leading to the possibility that at least one member might resign, a move Nash predicted would be "political disaster."
"It's been rumored in Washington for several months now that at least one of the Joint Chiefs is so disgusted with what's going on that he's thinking about resigning," Nash said. "They all have to be looking at this shaking their heads."
The strategy of the White House in fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria has included limited airstrikes and assisting in training Syrian rebels to fight the militants, with no clearly-stated plan for how to address Assad. Nash said military officials could voice their concerns publicly.
"Looking at what's going on in Syria and the degradation of U.S. prestige around the world, I think these people in uniform have . . . reached the max limit of looking stupid. And, I think one of them is about to go public," he said.
Nash said he had no idea who might be rumored to resign, but maintained he thought Hagel was trying to "keep the lid on this by getting to the White House and saying, 'You've got to step up. You've got to pay more attention to what we're telling you.' "
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