"You’ll be working for a president who once declared that he was elected to end wars but who now finds himself stuck, reluctantly, in a new one in Iraq and a prolonged one in Afghanistan — and who badly wants to finish up both in two years, though that’s probably impossible. He’s also a president who won’t listen much to you, since he apparently has little intention of altering the White House’s tight grip on the national security apparatus, which was the bane not only of Hagel but his two Pentagon predecessors, Leon Panetta and Bob Gates.
Flournoy “doesn’t want to be a doormat, and I think they want a doormat,” said one former Defense Department official who worked there during Flournoy’s tenure. “I do not think they’re looking for someone more aggressive and independent.”
Added a Washington think tank expert who has worked with Hagel: “It sounds like the White House just wants a cheerleader for what’s going on.”%% “For someone like Michèle Flournoy,” the expert continued, “isn’t it better to influence policy from the outside rather than be held hostage to the Defense Department?”
On top of that, the new defense secretary will be dealing with a huge but declining budget over which he or she has almost no control.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/chuck-hagel-barack-obama-michele-flournoy-white-house-defense-113179.html?hp=r1_3
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