Politico reported over the weekend that the Pentagon didn’t inform Biden, the National Security Council, or even many of its own officials that Defense Secretary Austin was in intensive care for four days last week and transferred some of his duties to Deputy Defense Secretary Hicks during that time. Administration officials, the media, and average Americans are outraged that they weren’t informed about the complications that one of the country’s most important figures experienced after his surgery.
It’s understandable why they’d all react that way since it’s thought that policy is formulated through an internal democratic process of sorts whereby decisionmakers debate amongst themselves the best way to advance their country’s interests prior to receiving presidential approval to implement it. Everyone is thought to play an important role, and it’s inconceivable that a leading official would secretly pull out of this process for some time without informing others, nor that anyone wouldn’t know they were gone.
The reality is altogether different than the abovementioned perception as proven by this latest scandal. Most decisionmakers don’t really matter since policy is largely formulated and implemented by the permanent members of the country’s military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies, not by rotating heads of their respective departments that oftentimes change between and even within administrations. That’s why Austin was able to lay low and partially transfer authority to Hicks without anyone noticing.
While administration officials often meet in person or remotely exchange views with one another if their schedules don’t allow face-to-face meetings as frequently as some might like, any single member’s abrupt or even secret removal from the process doesn’t threaten this workflow due to how it’s built. Rotating heads of the US’ aforesaid permanent bureaucracies, including the president, might set the overall agenda and make specific decisions. They don’t, however, always play a hands-on role.
Some administrations prefer a more active approach towards policy formulation and implementation, but the system is built to function indefinitely without the regular input of leading officials. Even those like Trump’s former one that tended to be more hands-on don’t always get what they want since they’re at the mercy of those members of their permanent bureaucracies who have the power to undermine their vision as proven by how they sabotaged his hoped-for rapprochement with Russia.
The Biden Administration mostly operates on “autopilot” with few exceptions such as National Security Advisor Sullivan’s reportedly leading role in formulating and implementing policy, but even he was kept out of the loop for four days and would have been none the wiser had the Pentagon not briefed him. That’s not to suggest that they could have kept Austin’s stay in intensive care a secret forever, but just that it goes to show that even the most hands-on administration official didn’t know for several days.
As the Ukrainian Conflict winds down and the latest Israeli-Hamas war risks expanding into a regional hybrid conflict between the Iranian-led Resistance Axis and the West, those who aren’t aware of how everything is really run were worried that Austin’s absence could have imperiled American interests. Informing them of the truth might alleviate their fears, but it would also dispel politically convenient fantasies about the country’s policy formulation and implementation, hence why it’ll stay under wraps.
