Hagel Stumped By Soldiers Question…

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Defense secretary Chuck Hagel was stumped by an Army staff sergeant who asked him for an assurance that the security situation in Afghanistan wouldn’t deteriorate after the withdrawal of American forces the way broad areas of Iraq succumbed to the Islamic State.

“In the end each country must take the responsibility for their own futures and for their own fate and for governing themselves,” Hagel replied.

The outgoing Pentagon chief insisted that Iraq and Afghanistan are “more different” than they are alike, although he noted some troubling similarities.

“But yes, some similar threats: terrorism,” he said. “Some of the same factors, some of the same organizations that wanted to do everything they can to destroy the United States as well as Western values and Western civilization. So there are common interests. There are common challenges. But how we work and cooperate with other countries is always — is always a little different. And I think that in this case that’s the case.”

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