US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin entered 2024 on the wrong foot. On New Year's Day he was admitted to a military hospital in Bethesda (Maryland), on the outskirts of Washington, where he had to undergo intensive care after a complicated medical intervention of which no details have been given. Austin, 70, kept his condition a secret and it wasn't until Friday night that the Pentagon confirmed that his boss was hospitalized. The lack of transparency at a time of great international instability has sparked controversy. Austin has finally apologized.
“I understand the media's concern about transparency and recognize that I could have done a better job ensuring the public was properly informed. I am committed to doing better. But it's important to say this: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure,” Austin said Saturday night. in a statement released by the Pentagon.
It wasn't just the media that was unaware of Austin's hospitalization. Senior officials in Joe Biden's Administration and the Pentagon and members of Congress were unaware that he had been hospitalized since Monday. The Pentagon did not inform the White House National Security Council or its main advisor, Jake Sullivan, of Austin's admission to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda until Thursday, according to Administration sources cited by the Associated agency. Press. He was the half Political the first to point out that not even Biden was warned up to three days after hospitalization.
When the income passed, The Pentagon issued a first statement in which his spokesman, General Pat Ryder, assured that “the Undersecretary of Defense was prepared at all times to act on behalf of the Secretary and exercise her powers, if necessary.” However, the undersecretary, Kathleen Hicks, was on vacation in Puerto Rico when she had to unexpectedly cover Austin's absence. According to Ryder, the White House and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were notified about Austin's hospitalization, but without specifying when that communication occurred.
Biden spoke with Austin on Saturday and expressed his confidence in him, according to White House sources cited by the AP. Republicans, however, have criticized the Pentagon chief's lack of transparency. “The Department of Defense deliberately concealed the health status of the Secretary of Defense for days. That is unacceptable,” said Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “The Secretary of Defense is the key link in the chain of command between the president and the uniformed military, including the nuclear chain of command, when the most important decisions must be made in a matter of minutes. “If this information is true, there must be consequences for this scandalous dysfunction,” Tom Cotton said this Saturday in a statement, Republican senator from Arkansas.
Austin's hospitalization comes as Iranian-backed militias have repeatedly launched drones, missiles and rockets at U.S. troop bases in Iraq and Syria, prompting the United States to retaliate on several occasions, including on Thursday. when the Secretary of Defense was not operational. It also comes as the United States pushes for an international maritime coalition in the Red Sea to prevent persistent attacks on commercial vessels by Houthi militants from Yemen. It has also occurred in the middle of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, where Austin is a regular interlocutor with the authorities of Ukraine and Israel.
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