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Why didn't Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin tell President Joe Biden that he would be hospitalized? For a career military man, this was an unimaginable breach of protocol.
Was he worried that the president and his national security team (the people reportedly responsible for the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan) would take over military operations in his absence? This is one plausible explanation, given former Defense Secretary Robert Gates' claim that Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue for the past 40 years.”
Over the weekend, it was revealed that the Secretary of Defense had been admitted to the intensive care unit on New Year's Day, but for several days no one bothered to inform the president, the national security team, or even other Pentagon leaders. There wasn't.
Defense Secretary Austin has no plans to resign, the Pentagon says
Austin had presumably given responsibility in his absence to number two, Deputy Chief Kathleen Hicks, but she was also unaware that he was in the hospital.
Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told CNN that the agency transferred “certain operational responsibilities that require secure communication capabilities at all times” to Hicks on January 2, the day after Austin was admitted to Walter Reed. Told.
Please try to imagine. On January 3, what NBC described as a “Chief of Deputies Committee Meeting” chaired by Vice Presidential National Security Adviser John Finer was held at the White House to discuss how the Houthi offensive in the conflict could be countered. We presented military options for punishment. Red Sea. The Pentagon had earlier sent some proposals to the White House, but senior military officials do not appear to be involved. This appears to confirm previous reports that White House officials play an unusually dominant role in U.S. military affairs.
When national security officials met that day, President Biden was on St. Croix, Hicks was vacationing in Puerto Rico and Austin was in intensive care.
This is alarming — especially as the U.S. is mired in two wars, dodging continued attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East and directing attacks against terrorists on foreign territory, according to the Pentagon Press Association. This is called an “outrage.''
On New Year's Eve, the day before the defense secretary entered the hospital, the United States engaged for the first time directly with Yemen-based terrorists, with Navy helicopters again attacking a neutral merchant ship and sinking a Houthi ship.
White House responds to Republican calls for Secretary Austin to resign after being hospitalized with mysterious illness
Over the past few months, the United States has deflected and destroyed a number of drones and other weapons trained on ships in the region, including those of the U.S. Navy. What would have happened if a Houthi missile had hit a Navy ship on January 2nd, killing a U.S. service member? Could Austin or Hicks have attended the emergency meeting of the National Security Council? Could they have communicated and followed the chain of command?
This is not the first time the Pentagon appears to have chosen to keep President Biden in the dark. Last year, a giant Chinese reconnaissance balloon hovered over our country for three days before military leaders decided to alert President Biden to its presence.
When Biden was alerted to an alarming spy plane flying brazenly over U.S. military facilities, he ordered his generals to shoot it down, but debris from the falling plane crashed into civilians on the ground. He was reportedly discouraged by his advisor, who pointed out that there was a risk of injury to the patient.
Biden administration officials tried to 'hide' Chinese spy balloons from public, exposed by Congress: Report
The president was persuaded, and a few days later the ship sailed through the ocean and was finally knocked out of the sky.
Does this seem strange?
Perhaps it's not so strange given the horrific withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which left 13 US servicemen dead, hundreds of Afghan nationals murdered, and abandoned the war-torn country to the Taliban. . This sudden and haphazard move was ordered by Biden and his team, who reportedly stubbornly ignored the advice of military generals.
Before the retraction, Politico said, “The real people behind the scenes 'running the Pentagon' are Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, according to two former officials familiar with the discussions.” Reported. “The Pentagon is not making these decisions,” one official said.
The White House quickly denied the story, but given what happened next, the report is valid. In the aftermath, military leaders, including the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Scott Miller, and the commander of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, disputed Biden's interpretation.
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According to Politico, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, McKenzie and other generals told Congress under oath, “They recommended that President Joe Biden…keep thousands of troops in Afghanistan; “This directly contradicts the president's comments in August that no one would do anything.” He warned against withdrawing troops from the country. ”
The withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 26, 2021 marked the beginning of the end of Joe Biden's popularity. In less than a week, his approval ratings turned negative, beginning a downward trend that now threatens his re-election campaign.
The military probably wasn't too happy that the president blamed their poor planning (and his predecessor Donald Trump) for the disaster, rather than taking responsibility himself.
Some officers expressed criticism of the commander-in-chief and lived with regret.
H.R. McMaster, a retired Army lieutenant general and former national security adviser to President Trump, criticized Biden's hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan and criticized Biden's hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan. He was fired from the board of directors of Point University.
In fact, Mr. Biden fired all military academy directors appointed by former President Trump, regardless of their background or qualifications.
of six presidential appointees fired – 18 people in total – The selection from the academy’s board of directors was unprecedented and probably unpopular among the Pentagon’s upper echelons.
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Incredibly, Biden is standing by his defense secretary, who is still hospitalized. But Americans may be wondering: Who's running the show?
We need to know whether National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken (neither of whom are military) are directing our nation's military efforts.
Click here to read more from Liz Peek
