Will this ever happen? I wouldn’t bet the mortgage, but it’s not like Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin committed a minor infraction: He’s a top national security official and cabinet member—he can’t go AWOL. Austin made headlines to start the new year for his secret hospital visit, in which he didn’t tell anyone, not even senior White House aides.
Austin supposedly informed his chief of staff, who didn’t relay the information up the chain of command due to illness. Then, some deputy secretary was said to be capable of handling Austin’s duties but was on vacation. It’s a circus, and someone needs to be held accountable.
Mr. Austin has prostate cancer, which was something I understand he was trying to keep close to the vest, but not in this position. This diagnosis was going to be disclosed at some point, though the surgery he had stemming from his condition led to a severe infection that required him to be sent to the intensive care unit on January 1. It wasn’t until three days later that the Biden White House was informed of Austin’s condition.
Meanwhile, Houthi rebels in Yemen have fired ballistic missiles at US warships and harassed international shipping. Iran continues to fund and direct attacks against American and Israeli forces in the Middle East through their proxy groups. Israel might be invading Lebanon next after the low-intensity operational phase in Gaza is complete. And now, Iran and Pakistan are bombing each other, claiming the strikes are targeted against terrorists operating within each other’s borders. The entire region is on the brink of all-out war, and Austin is more concerned about concealing his health condition.
The only good news in all of this is that when Israel completes the low-intensity operation phase in the Gaza Strip, it will mean Hamas is no more. Still, the man running our defense department was knocked out, didn’t tell anyone, and felt he only needed to apologize. That ship sailed when audio of the 911 call was publicized, showing from the get-go an intent to keep this whole matter a secret. It wasn’t some off-the-cuff, in in-the-moment type of oversight.
Also, as we’ve noted before, it does question whether there are actual contingency plans for such an event with any department. The Department of Defense can’t focus on that right now because they’re scrambling to draft contingency plans for a regional war in the Middle East after Biden’s strategy of appeasing Iran for several weeks failed. And this was happening while Austin was in the ICU. The man should resign, but he won’t. There were many avenues he could have taken beforehand and didn’t.
