The US defence secretary's AWOL mystery gets worse

Now we hear that Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, was in "severe pain" wheh he was rushed to hospital and to the ICU on January 1, that his chief of staff who should have told the White House, had flu and didn't tell anyone, and lots of people in Washington now want resignations. Nikki Haley, the Republican presidential candidate, who until now I thought was rather good with her head on the right way round, has called for Joe Biden to resign! Others, like Trump, have said Austin should resign. That at least makes more sense. You can't expect Biden to resign for something he knew nothing about. Major-General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary who is a good guy, has faced a torrid time from the Pentagon press corps reporters who, understandably, have been asking why the hell they weren't told, never mind the president. Apart from all the political repercussions and the demands for heads to roll, the biggest mystery and the most private topic is what on earth happened to the defence secretary? He had had a minor op of some sort and had goone hme only to wake up in terrible pain. What caused it and how close to danger was he? He didn't just go to A and E for treatment, he was taken straight to an intensive care unit. In other words, it was sufficiently serious for him to be given all the required life-support assistance to keep him functioning properly. Sudden severe pain after an op of whatever kind would normally be associated with a blockage in the system. For example, a blockage in the waterworks. That would be seriously painful. If that is the case, then perhaps what this is all about is the fact that the medical problem was deemed to be so personal that Austin just didn't want it to become public, or even presidential knowledge. This is purely speculation. But that might explain what this has all been about.