Who’s in charge?

Command and (non)control

Even those of us in the information business understand that sometimes the government has to keep a secret. Which is why there are exceptions to various freedom of information laws in states, and exceptions to federal rules, too.

And when it comes to military and/ or intelligence operations, we doubly understand. FDR was right to be furious when The Chicago Tribune—publisher Col. Robert McCormick, sole prop.—reported that the Americans had advanced knowledge of Japan’s plans at the Battle of Midway. Any close reading of the front-page screaming-headline of a story would have tipped the enemy that the Americans had broken the Japanese code. Thankfully, The Chicago Tribune didn’t circulate in Tokyo in 1942.

Even these days, maybe especially these days, Americans should understand that they don’t want to know everything. They certainly don’t want our various enemies—and they are legion—to know everything.

But those are exceptions. Understandable exceptions. Meant to keep our side safe.

We hope, however, that somebody knows everything. And is keeping the White House informed.

The strangest thing about this Lloyd Austin story is that the president of the United States didn’t know that his secretary of Defense was offline for days, even as the American military launched strikes overseas. It’s bizarre.

Apparently Defense Secretary (and former general) Lloyd Austin was hospitalized for days after developing complications from an “elective procedure” that he had in late December. The papers say by the turn of the new year he began feeling bad and checked back into the hospital. At that point, apparently, nobody informed the president.

NB: Lloyd Austin is the No. 2 man, after the president, in the chain of command for military action. (The vice president is like a deputy, as she isn’t in the formal chain of command. The veep is only there to take over in case the president is incapacitated.)

Also note well this from The Washington Post:

“On Thursday, while Austin was hospitalized, U.S. forces launched a rare airstrike in Baghdad, killing the leader of an Iranian-backed militia that the Pentagon said was plotting attacks against U.S. personnel there and in Syria. The incident prompted an outcry from Iraqi officials and raised questions about how long U.S. troops will be allowed to remain in the country.”

The secretary—who, as a former uniformed officer, understands how to apologize—said he took full responsibility and “could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed.”

Huh?

The public might have mostly ignored the brief in the “national” section of the paper. (“Def Sec sick; finds bed at Walter Reed”) But one might hope that the president would have had the information.

We quote a senator from Arkansas named Tom Cotton, who we’d remind is also a former Army officer:

“The Secretary of Defense is the key link in the chain of command between the president and the uniformed military, including the nuclear chainof-command, when the weightiest of decisions must be made in minutes. If this report is true, there must be consequences for this shocking breakdown.”

We doubt there will be. But ambiguity over who is in charge of the military—even in the darkest of night when the whole country is asleep, maybe especially then—is never a good thing.

As mentioned, Lloyd Austin is former uniformed military, so he knows how to apologize. He also should know how to stand at attention while a superior officer chews him out. Which ought to happen any minute now.