Is U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel A 'Paper Tiger'?

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel makes remarks during a press conference with Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, (not pictured), chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the Pentagon, Dec. 4, 2013. DOD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Daniel Hinton

‘Paper Tiger’ At The Pentagon -- Glenn Thrush, Politico

For months, Chuck Hagel has played a secretary on defense. Is this his punch-back moment?

Since he became President Obama’s secretary of defense earlier this year, Chuck Hagel, the ruthlessly candid and occasionally contrarian former Republican senator from Nebraska, has mostly kept his inner maverick in check. He’s been so much of an enigma in nine muted months at the Pentagon that one frequent critic, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), was heard to ask aloud, “What’s with this guy?” as she emerged from a low-energy meeting with the heavy-lidded defense secretary, according to one fellow senator. So White House officials were stunned when Hagel abruptly spit the bit over the summer.

By August, the first round of across-the-board cuts mandated by the congressionally imposed process known as budget sequestration had forced the Pentagon to slash its massive personnel costs. Obama’s White House team was controlling the talking points, and these defense cuts were an especially powerful part of their political message: Republicans, they claimed, were willing to endanger national security to appease their anti-government Tea Party wing. So it came as unwelcome news when Hagel declared—without getting West Wing approval—that he was exercising his authority to reinstate five of 11 furlough days for the department’s civilian employees, according to several current and former administration officials. White House aides called Hagel’s team to complain. The secretary didn’t care. He was growing increasingly concerned that the administration was ignoring the Pentagon’s budget and readiness crises, and he directed his staff to give a mid-level agency bureaucrat a one-hour head’s up before he went public. “Hagel didn’t want to slow the process down,” a former defense official told me. “So he just decided to do it, and he did it… Message sent.”

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Update: Whatever happened to Chuck Hagel? -- Paul Mirengoff, Powerline

My Comment: As I had mentioned in the previous post .... he gives me no confidence on being the head of the Pentagon. And with massive budget cuts now being slated for the Pentagon in the next few weeks, my prediction is that he is going to "toe the White House line" and cave in to these Congressional cuts that will result in a seriously smaller and less effective U.S. military.