Faced with inflammatory remarks from Afghan President Hamid Karzai and insurgent bombings, Chuck Hagel showed an abundance of caution in his first visit to Afghanistan as America's new Pentagon chief. Nine days after taking over as defense secretary following an acrimonious nomination process in Congress, the former Republican senator arrived in Kabul on Friday saying he wanted "to better understand where we are in Afghanistan." But Hagel's visit quickly turned into an exercise in crisis management, AFP reported.