While it's not fair to say that Hagel fucked up, he was selected to oversee the drawdown of US troops in Afghanistan, and subsequently implement Obama's plan to shrink the US military and reduce defense spending to its lowest levels in decades.
The delicate nature of the drawdown, which US republicans have attacked as premature and destabilising, is revealed in a cable from the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.
"We've come to the realization that the era of US military presence, combat presence, is slowly coming to an end," he added, noting the gradual drawdown of US ground forces from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, confusion reigns over Mr Obama's plan for a start in the drawdown of US troops by July 2011.
In August 1994, the 42nd Military Police Group was deactivated with the military drawdown of US Military forces in Europe.
Precision munitions and the reconnaissance-strike complex, which came into being shortly after the Vietnam War, were seen as a way tooffsetthe post-war drawdown of US forces.
His duties included helping to implement the drawdown of US forces from Iraq and establishing partnership programs between Iraq and the United States that continue beyond the final withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq in December 2011.
Consider: Mr. Petraeus has been leading a campaign of "domestic information operations" to browbeat Congress and the American people to accept limiting the size of, and possibly even a delay of, the drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan in July 2011 that President Obama promised when he acceded to the military's demand for a "surge" of 30,000 troops in Afghanistan last fall.
Adhering to the July 2011 drawdown of US troops, while strengthening the Afghan government, will not only save American lives and dollars, but it will place firmly in President Karzai's lap the responsibility for developing Afghanistan, and providing the Afghan citizenry the kinds of services and security they have long deserved.
US President Barack Obama made clear last year when approving the surge that he wants a US drawdown of troops to begin next summer, although US General David Petraeus and others insist that has to be based on conditions on the ground.
