XPost: alt.security.terrorism, alt.politics.nationalism.black, t   
   lk.politics.guns   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics   
   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   Anyone following how weak and passive the United States has been in the   
   face of provocations from our adversaries in the Middle East might   
   conclude that the secretary of defense has gone missing.   
      
   And at least for a few days last week, he literally was.   
      
   In an age when it’s nearly impossible to go off the grid, Secretary of   
   Defense Lloyd Austin managed it.   
      
   He failed to notify the White House and other key players that he was   
   hospitalized in the intensive-care unit.   
      
   This, needless to say, is not an incidental detail about his life — like,   
   say, that he routinely does his grocery shopping on Saturday afternoons or   
   is taking the Kansas City Chiefs and giving the points this weekend.   
      
   If the principal deputy assistant secretary for fair housing and equal   
   opportunity went missing, presumably only her personal assistant would   
   notice and the country would be better for it.   
      
   The secretary of defense, in contrast, is a rather consequential position   
   in the US government. He is in charge of the largest and most important   
   part of the executive branch and second in the chain of command only to   
   the president of the United States.   
      
   He is central to any number of scenarios crucial to US national security,   
   including the decision to launch a nuclear strike.   
      
   If a US destroyer gets hit in the Red Sea, you don’t want US commanders   
   and high US officials wondering where the SecDef is.   
      
   Although much remains unanswered, we know that Austin had an elective   
   medical procedure at Walter Reed hospital Dec. 22. Back home, he   
   experienced severe pain and returned to the hospital Jan. 1 and was put in   
   intensive care.   
      
   Somehow even Austin’s deputy secretary, who picked up some of his duties,   
   didn’t learn of his whereabouts until four days after his hospitalization.   
      
   Loose lips may sink ships, but spectacularly dysfunctional lack of   
   communication at the top of the US government is its own problem.   
      
   Just as no Harvard freshman could get away with the copying that Claudine   
   Gay engaged in, no private first class could go AWOL and expect to remain   
   in the military.   
      
   The Pentagon says it couldn’t notify other VIPs like, you know, the   
   president of the United States, because Austin’s chief of staff was also   
   ill.   
      
   Are we really supposed to believe that no one else at the Pentagon has   
   access to a phone or email?   
      
   We are obviously not living through an era of great bipartisanship, so it   
   was notable that the Austin absence resulted in a joint statement from the   
   Republican chairman and the Democratic ranking member of the House Armed   
   Services committee pointedly asking for more information about the days in   
   question.   
      
   The White House, naturally, immediately made clear its “complete trust and   
   confidence in Secretary Austin.”   
      
   In fairness, once someone has presided over the pullout of Afghanistan   
   without getting fired, it’s hard to cashier him for anything short of   
   losing some other country in humiliating fashion.   
      
   This fiasco could simply be Austin’s own unbelievable personal lapse. But   
   it’s hard not to see the controversy in the context of an administration   
   that when it comes to national security cares as much about fashionable   
   ideological fixations — from DEI to the climate — as the essentials   
   involved in maintaining a highly capable war-fighting machine.   
      
   And the most important lack of transparency about health is happening   
   before our eyes. It doesn’t involve any cabinet official but the commander   
   in chief himself.   
      
   We are told that Joe Biden is robust and energetic when he is increasingly   
   rickety and, seemingly, easily confused.   
      
   We can be sure if the president gets worse, the White House — adopting the   
   Austin policy — will do everything in its power to hide the ball.   
      
   Meanwhile, we’ve conducted a real-time experiment regarding Biden foreign   
   policy. With a war on in Gaza and Iranian proxies attacking US interests   
   throughout the Middle East, the secretary of defense disappeared, and it   
   didn’t matter.   
      
   https://nypost.com/2024/01/08/opinion/lloyd-austins-vanishing-act-is-an-   
   indictment-of-the-biden-admins-uselessness-and-sneakiness/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)