The Los Angeles Times reports that “Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had initially planned on visiting the vast U.S. military installation here, ringed by snow-topped mountain ranges and craggy countryside, to close out the final chapter of combat missions in a bloody war that has dragged on for 13 years.”  

“But that was months ago: before he was pressured to resign his position as Pentagon chief, before a resurgence of deadly Taliban attacks, and before his job was handed to his former deputy, Ashton Carter.”  

“So when Hagel came here Saturday for his fourth — and most likely final — time as Defense secretary, it was not under the circumstances he had initially envisioned. His arrival in Kabul was the first leg of what’s become a farewell tour through Asia and the Middle East.”