A person who reportedly may replace Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense has shown to have a poor understanding of military matters, according to a 2012 statement she’d made criticizing Mitt Romney’s prophetic assessment of total troop withdrawal from Iraq.
President Barack Obama’s acceptance of Hagel’s tendered resignation as defense secretary Monday prompted speculation as to a replacement. The New York Times reported:
Even before the announcement of Mr. Hagel’s removal, Obama officials were speculating on his possible replacement. At the top of the list were Michèle A. Flournoy, a former under secretary of defense, and Ashton B. Carter, a former deputy secretary of defense.
During Obama’s reelection bid, Flournoy appeared in a campaign ad supporting the president.
“Governor Romney called the ending of the Iraq War and the bringing of our troops home ‘tragic,’ which is really hard to understand,” Flournoy said in the October 2012 video. “He wanted to keep our troops there longer, tens of thousands of them.”
Here’s that ad, via The Washington Free Beacon. Story continues after clip.
As it turned out, Romney was right. The void left by U.S. troop withdrawal was soon filled by Islamic State terrorists. The Washington Free Beacon reported:
In light of revelations from Obama’s former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta—who blamed Iraq’s current chaos on the administration’s hasty decision to withdraw U.S. troops—and a range of other criticisms from former administration officials, Flournoy does not appear to be the “new direction” the White House is seeking for the last two years of the Obama presidency.
Perhaps the problem lies within the president himself.
