Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Knows Military Power Has Limits

As He Exits, Hagel Warns of Limits to Military Power 
Stars and Stripes
by Jon Harper
Jan 23, 2015

"We're products of our experiences, and we all come at our jobs ... being shaped by those experiences," Hagel said. "The violence, the horrors, the suffering that I saw [in Vietnam] conditioned me ... I saw the suffering of our own troops; I saw the suffering of the Vietnamese people; I saw terrible things, which war always produces."

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel waits for junior enlisted military personnel assigned to the National Capital Region to arrive at his office in order to host a lunch and listen and discuss their concerns at the Pentagon, Jan. 20, 2015. Adrian Cadiz/DoD

WASHINGTON -- As he prepares to hand over the reins of the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is warning that military power has its limits and Americans should avoid believing that force alone can transform conflict-riven societies in the Middle East and elsewhere.

"It is easy to drift into other missions, and I do believe that you always have to ask the tough questions, [such as] what happens next? Where do you want this to end up," Hagel said in an interview with Stars and Stripes and Military Times.

"Any secretary of defense has to always be on guard that we don't inadvertently sometimes drift into a more accelerated use than we thought of what our military was going to be [doing] ... I think the two long wars that we were in the last 13 years is pretty clear evidence of ... how things can get out of control, and drift and wander."
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