Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who announced Monday he is stepping down, began his position in 2013 as President Barack Obama's "indispensible man," but then three unexpected things happened to put him at odds with the White House — Vladimir Putin, the Islamic State (ISIS), and Ebola, Gen. Jack Keane told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
Keane explained that those three issues caused Hagel to shift his view away from President Barack Obama's agenda, and he became "less the president's man, more the generals' man."
"He was initially the president's indispensable man, because he was opposed to the war in Iraq as a former senator. He wanted to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and he was willing to cut the defense budget.
"But then, Putin, ISIS, and Ebola all came on the scene, and he found himself agreeing more with the generals," Keane, a retired four-star Army general, said Tuesday.
It was then that Hagel began "advocating for arming the Ukrainians, taking a stronger stand on troops on the ground in Iraq, doing something about Assad in Syria," Keane said, adding the defense secretary also advocated a quarantine for troops returning from assisting Ebola victims in Africa.
"All of those things put him at odds with this White House. And, the fact of the matter is, that's a small closeted insular team there, and they resented the fact that he was more independent of them," Keane said.
The nature of the Defense Department causes "tension and frustration" between the White House, its security team, and the Pentagon, Keane explained, though he said it was unusual for a president to have four defense secretaries.
"Now, we're going to have a fourth secretary of defense in six years serving a single president. That is really quite unprecedented. I think it dramatizes the tension and frustration that truly exists here," he said.
Hagel, who is expected to stay in his position until a replacement is confirmed, reportedly
resigned under pressure from the White House.
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