Dereliction of duty
Andrew Malcolm says can his sorry, diversity-hire ass. Seconded, wholeheartedly.
Secy Austin’s Blunder Was Arrogance or Stupidity – Either Way, He Needs to Go
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who presides over 1.4 million U.S. military volunteers, left his Pentagon post without notice or authorization and kept his absence a secret for almost a week. That’s called AWOL, even if you’re in charge.Austin was a four-star general with 41 years of service, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. So, there is no question about his character or devotion to the service of his country.
There is, however, now a serious question about his intelligence, integrity, and, most importantly, his judgment. Colleagues describe the veteran as an intensely private person.
Sorry, you give up privacy when you take on an appointed job that’s high up in the chain of presidential succession, leading the men and women volunteers who comprise our national defense.
How’s he going to prosecute the next Bowe Bergdahl who leaves his guard post without notice and his fellow troops vulnerable?
He can’t.
He wouldn’t anyway, because he won’t want to, anymore than his ideological confrere Bathhouse Barry Soetero did. Which, regardless of his presumably honorable service wearing the nation’s military uniform, DOES call his character into question, like it or not. Right along with his (nonexistent) intelligence, integrity, and judgment.
Now that he got caught and caused a serious political uproar, we’re told his unexplained absence involved the discovery, removal of, and complications from prostate cancer. That’s a shame. But it’s an explanation, not an excuse.
No one wants to hear such news. No one wants to get shot at, as Austin was. But he kept his diagnosis, operation, surgical complications, and residence in an Intensive Care Unit a secret, even from his second in command, the president, and those gossipy toads in Congress.
That may be very human. Given his privacy penchant and the sensitivity of such a diagnosis for a man, especially one in a masculine warrior culture, that’s understandable. But it’s also quite unacceptable.
Well yeah, to normal, sane Americans who don’t despise their country and wish to see it weakened and ruined like his putative boss, Pedo Peter, does. So yes, he certainly “needs to go”—but he won’t. The unkindest cut of all is that, in America That Was, a “man” like him would never have been installed in the first damned place.