BILLY BUDD was a novella by Herman Melville (MOBY DICK), published after his death.
The eternal theme of BILLY BUDD resonates with everyone and anyone who has ever had a whiff of command; it is easy to punish bad people, or people you don't like, under your command, who have broken the rules. It is extraordinarily difficult to punish good people or people you like, under your command; when they have broken rules.
BILLY BUDD is a tale of a sailor, in the British navy, during the Napoleonic Wars. He is more than a sailor; he is a handsome angel on earth; beloved by all, a man of absolute purity, who commits an act, inadvertently; which is such a dangerous violation of military discipline, that the punishment is hanging.
"Struck dead by an angel of God! Yet the angel must hang!"
What would Jesus do? Obviously, forgive the angel who slipped; but then again, unless you are a Sunni Muslim, committed to Sunni Apocalyptic eschatology, one never imagines Jesus the war lord, leading any army to final victory, over infidels at the upcoming Battle of Dabiq. For the purpose of any military is to extract more killing from life than dying.
The officers at BILLY BUDD’s trial want to spare him; he is an angel on earth. However, BILLY’s Commander demands they follow the letter of the law and the Articles of War.
BILLY BUDD’s Commander influences the officers; their individual opinion of BILLY does not matter; no person, not even an angel, can commit a hanging offense and not be hanged. The example must be set, for the whole fleet is watching.
BILLY BUDD is hung,; his last words praise his Commander.
Secretary of Defense, retired General Lloyd Austin, has given his Commander-in Chief, Joe Biden, a BILLY BUDD moment.
On December 22, 2023, Secretary Austin went into the hospital, for an elective procedure; the exact details of said procedure still unknown.
His Commander-in-Chief was not informed.
Neither was his Second in Command.
He was discharged from the hospital the next day.
On January 1, 2024, he suffered severe pain and was readmitted to the hospital; and placed in Intensive Care.
Neither his Commander-in-Chief nor his second in command were informed he was in ICU.
On January2,2024, he delegated his authority to his second-in-c0mmand, Kathleen Hicks; who was on vacation in Puerto Rico.
At that time, she was not informed that the delegation of authority was a result, of Secretary Austin being incapacitated in an ICU.
On January 4, 2024, Secretary Austin failed to appear at a meeting at the White House to discuss the deteriorating situation in Haiti.
His aide was there; Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan inquired as to the whereabouts of Secretary Austin; it was only then that Sullivan, and through Sullivan, Joe Biden, Austin’s Commander-in-Chief was informed that he was in ICU.
As this Blog is being written, Secretary Austin is still in the hospital.
This Blogger hates to inform Secretary Austin, that once he accepted the position of Secretary of Defense, his health no longer belonged to Lloyd Austin, but to his Commander-in-chief and the Republic.
The Defense of the Republic, is the business Austin has chosen; he has to play, by the rules of the business he has chosen.
This Blogger knows officers who have served with and under Lloyd Austin; he was wonderful soldier, an angel first, in uniform and then in mufti.
In 2024, Lloyd Austin is about as close as one will get to BILLY BUDD in the Pentagon, in the Department of Defense, in the American Military or in the American Army. Certainly in Joe Biden's Cabinet.
Which presents Joe Biden with a BILLY BUDD problem.
While Chief Executive Joe Biden was at Valley Forge, preaching that he was the only one who could defend American democracy, from America’s Hugo Chavez; he had no clue where his top Military minister was; that is not good.
Adversaries of the Republic are watching; they are calculating that Austin's lapse in judgment was not a lapse, but an act of defiance, a total lack of respect for Joe Biden.
That theory of the case is believable; for how many alpha males in the world respect Joe Biden, Seven?
Austin's mysterious absence from the chain of command, particularly from the nuclear chain of command, is potentially very dangerous; for it reinforces the belief, among the alpha male coteries surrounding President Xi of China and President Putin of Russia, that Biden is weak to and at his core; and that his military is insubordinate in perhaps more than this; and that his military is rotting from the top down.
Geopolitics in the 21stCentury is a jungle of predators and prey. The predators of the 21st Century see the Secretary's absence as a reflection of Biden's Leadership, or more precisely, lack of leadership. The absence of the Secretary can be interpreted as a emblematic of disarray in a rotting American Military, with every officer for himself, with every Commander thinking only of his personal issues and not of any decision's impact on the welfare of the Republic.
To the gang leaders of the world, Biden is not only a President of a government which cannot control its nation's borders; but one who is incapable of controlling his officer corps.
Presidents who cannot control their own military are seen as weak by the alpha males that want to bury the Republic.
American veterans think that this Austin lapse was not a lapse, but a deliberate snub of Joe Biden, for ignoring his, Austin’s alpha male choice for chief of the American Navy; Biden chose a female DEI admiral instead.
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
First, the medical procedure which incapacitated Secretary Austin must be revealed, in stark honesty. For there is a rampaging belief in certain European warrior circles that the procedure was a sexual enhancement procedure, for a 70 year old man, surrounded by 40 year old women as his Chief of Staff, second in command, and top aide.
That is why Secretary Austin was secretive; he was embarrassed.
As 2024 begins, few, very few competent war lords want to fight, to kill or to die for Joe Biden; that is his true legacy.
Lloyd Austin is one of the very few, don’t BILLY BUDD him. He is more important than his transgression, however inexcusable and dumb.
And let us all pray, he stays alive until the end of Joe Biden’s term.
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