Earlier today I was idly flipping channels on the TV and came upon a CNN chyron informing me breathlessly that Chuck Hagel had just “blasted” President Obama’s Syria policy. Unfortunately, I came in at the end of the segment, so I didn’t get to find out just what kind of blasting Hagel had done. But it certainly sounded ominous.
I just now remembered this, and figured I should take a look at the news to see what had happened. But that wasn’t so easy. Every front page I checked had bupkis about Hagel. Finally I went to the source: CNN. Here’s what they say:
Earlier this month, while on an trip to Latin America to discuss climate change, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel sat down and wrote a highly private, and very blunt memo to National Security Advisor Susan Rice about U.S. policy toward Syria.
It was a detailed analysis, crafted directly by Hagel “expressing concern about overall Syria strategy,” a senior U.S. official tells CNN. The official directly familiar with the contents declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
….The focus of the memo was “we need to have a sharper view of what to do about the Assad regime,” the official said. The official refused to provide additional details, but did not disagree with the notion that Hagel feels the U.S. is risking its gains in the war against ISIS if adjustments are not made.
That’s it? Hagel wrote an internal memo suggesting that we should have a “sharper view” of what to do about Assad? And some sympathetic White House official kinda sorta agreed that Hagel felt we might be in trouble if “adjustments” aren’t made?
I swear, watching cable news is like reading the National Enquirer these days: big, blasting headlines that turn out, when you read the story, to mean absolutely nothing. That’s ten minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. Thanks, CNN.
