On the first of this month, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized at Walter Reed Medical Center, necessitating intensive care and incapacitating him from his Pentagon duties for nearly an entire week.
The Pentagon, enduring symbol of American national security, is expected to operate with a semblance of accountability.
An incapacitated Secretary of Defense would be a concern for the Pentagon under the best of circumstances, but there was a terrible twist in this story: With the Secretary Austin in the ICU, Pentagon officials did not bother to update the National Security Council until three days after his hospitalization. (READ MORE from Philip Reichert: The Military’s F-35 Fiasco)
Public concern was immediate and outspoken, and for good reason. The White House, National Security Council, and Congress were kept in the dark by the Pentagon even as the Deputy Secretary of Defense began to assume Secretary Austin’s duties. As if things couldn’t get worse, the Deputy Secretary of Defense was on vacation in Puerto Rico.
This shocking news comes at the heels of a very bad year for the Pentagon, featuring shocking crises such as the Chinese spy balloon controversy and a hundred-million-dollar game of hide-and-seek with an F-35 in the skies over South Carolina.
Unable to turn over a new leaf for the new year, we are now told that the second highest ranking official in the chain of command was unable to perform his duties for nearly a week while the National Security Council was in the dark.
An employee in any industry would typically face severe disciplinary action for failing to show up to work without informing their supervisor or peers. Having served in uniform myself, I can assert with certainty that it’s exceedingly rare for service members, of any rank, to be unaccounted for several days without prior notice. In the case of the Secretary of Defense, it’s absolutely dumbfounding.
This pattern of poor communication, chronic mismanagement, and eroding public trust has become a hallmark of the Pentagon’s operations. However, the recent silence over Secretary Austin’s condition is not merely an oversight; it’s indicative of a deeper, more alarming attitude. This reckless and deliberate lack of communication alludes to a Pentagon that feels accountable to no one — not even the National Security Council.
The Pentagon, enduring symbol of American national security, is expected to operate with a semblance of accountability. Unfortunately, we have ample evidence to suggest this is impossible. Years of failed audits, an inability to curtail safety concerns and operational failures, and now an absent-unknown Secretary of Defense. (READ MORE: What Is Our Military For?)
American interests abroad are threatened now more than ever in recent memory. American forces are once again under fire in the Middle East and revisionist powers like Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China continue the steady march against U.S. interests across the globe. Yet here at home, public trust in the military has fallen to its lowest point in a generation, a sentiment not aided by the Pentagon’s recent performance.
Given the threats we face, is it too much to ask for the most powerful and expensive military the world has ever seen to have halfway competent senior leadership? Apparently so.
Philip Reichert is a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst, contractor for the U.S. Space Force, and producer at Fox News.