The abrupt resignation of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was startling, but not a surprise considering Hagel's exclusion from the Obama White House's inner circle, LIGNET intelligence analyst Lisa Ruth told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner on
Newsmax TV on Monday.
Former CIA analyst Ruth said that Hagel, a Republican, "wasn't close" to Obama in the same way as other White House advisers such as Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey.
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The sudden departure of Hagel, who publicly disagreed with the White House on the severity of the threat posed by the Islamic State, may mean less internal dissent on defense policy but at the cost of further isolating the president from reality, said Ruth.
Ruth said a new House Intelligence Committee report on the 2012 assault that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, still leaves an impression "that we just don't know what happened."
The report cleared the CIA and the White House of any wrongdoing in the attack.
"If nothing went wrong, how do we stop it from happening again?" said Ruth.
She also said that Israel has "good reason" to consider pre-emptive military action to rein in Iran's nuclear program, and that elsewhere in the Middle East, the Islamic State continues to adapt to setbacks in one place by popping up elsewhere.