Doctors share new details about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's hospitalization

The announcement came after days of questions about why Austin had been hospitalized and why top officials hadn’t been told about his hospitalization for days.

[donaldmaxie]

Doctors say?? What happened to medical record privacy laws or did Austin give permission for the information to be released?

[andrewclifton]

This guy should not be in trouble for having a medical emergency has cancer for crying out loud

[ihorperec]

Some thoughts on the incident that happened to U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

I'll start from the beginning:

Last year, the 70-year-old Austin was diagnosed with prostate cancer. In late December, the Pentagon chief underwent "minimally invasive" surgery.

On Jan. 1, 2024, Austin was hospitalized again on an emergency basis due to complications from the December surgery. Complications included a urinary tract infection and fluid buildup in the abdomen.

But the most important thing is this: Up until Jan. 4, U.S. (that is, for 3 full days!) President Biden was not informed of the incident. Moreover, not even Kathleen Hicks, Austin's deputy, who was on vacation in Puerto Rico in those days, was informed about her boss's hospitalization until January 3.

In other words, an extraordinary situation occurred in which it was not clear who was holding the "nuclear briefcase".

Of course, the "nuclear briefcase" is just a metaphor for the power to decide whether to launch a nuclear attack in the event of an emergency and pass it down the bureaucratic chain of command.

To put it differently, if such an urgent order were to be given in the situation described, it would take several precious minutes before it became clear who was responsible for the country's defense at that moment.

Details of the incident are still being investigated, but many Republicans are already demanding at best a detailed explanation of what happened, and at worst, Austin's immediate resignation.

What's more, Democrats have started talking about his resignation as well. The first Democrat to publicly call for Austin's resignation was Rep. Chris Delucio (PA). Already some liberal media outlets sympathetic to Democrats - Newsweek magazine and the New York Times - have called for Austin's resignation in their editorials.

In my opinion, the incident has dealt a serious blow to both the reputation of the Pentagon (and personally the Secretary of Defense) and the reputation of President Biden's administration as a whole. It gives additional ammunition to Republicans who say to voters: "Look what a mess the Biden administration is! Is this the kind of president you want during the next term? Do you want the security of the country to depend on this group of incompetent people?"

In addition, the Austin incident has weakened the position of those people inside Biden's cabinet who favor increased military aid to Ukraine (i.e., Austin and Blinken) and correspondingly strengthened the position of those who favor a more cautious approach and the negotiation process (i.e., National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and CIA Director Bill Burns). 

In short, the incident is unpleasant and it happened in a very unfortunate way, just a couple weeks before the first primaries and caucuses in 2024.

On the other hand, I see one very positive thing in this incident. I suspect that such an incident could only occur in a situation where the rule is not to notify the president of something that might not seem important at first glance. It is possible that there was once an unofficial decision within the Biden administration to delegate most of the authority from the president to the department heads of his administration. This may have been done because of Biden's age, because of his declining cognitive functions, his health, his infirmity, his constant malaise, his need for a nap several times a day, etc.

If this is true, it means that the country is not run by a tired old man with signs of senile dementia after all, but by a group of generally more energetic and younger people.

[jiyounglee]

3 days to notify the Executive Branch= president Biden
An anchor reminds us...
3 days...
Is this okay, Ladies & Grntlemen???

[karlahmadi]

One too many trips to Kiev perhaps ? That Zelensky curse is not a joke

[qlkofsv]

No excuses.. AWOL!! No one was in charge except for Hussain Obamass.

[notacommie]

Dereliction of duty

Not a fine line

[firozasulaiman]

Bahot hua allah ka ajab un loko ko jarur auega .masum bacho k katilo k upar. Inshallah

[alrad]

His original procedure was elective surgery on our about 12/22. Then he had some complications and was ambulanced to hospital where he was placed in ICU.

[leemusiccompanyperkins]

Is it possible all HUMANS have been POISONED, with RADIATION? THE SYMPTOMS ARE EXACTLY IDENTICAL.