Paste BN Opinion newsletter: Lloyd Austin

Did you see the news around Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin over the weekend? It's honestly pretty shocking. But just in case you missed it, columnist Ingrid Jacques has a look at what happened and why it's a sign of a bigger problem.

This is a sample of the column, which you can read here.

"One of the most important Biden administration Cabinet members – Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin – has been hospitalized since the beginning of the year. The Pentagon noted Sunday that Austin, suffering from severe pain while recovering from a medical procedure performed in late December, was admitted on Jan. 1 to intensive care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

And not only was the public kept in the dark until Friday, but Biden, who after all is the commander in chief, had no clue for three days that the person he appointed to run the Pentagon was out of commission.

At a time when the world is increasingly dangerous, and thousands of U.S. military personnel are perched on the edge of a war zone, it would be nice to think that the United States is ready to confront those challenges in a competent way."