The more unbelievable screw-up was that a B-52 bomber was allowed to
fly over United States soil in August - mistakenly armed with six
nuclear missiles.
But in a show of leadership all too rare in
Washington these days, Defense Secretary Robert Gates accepted the
resignations of both the Air Force secretary and the Air Force chief of
staff in an unprecedented double-firing after an exhaustive
investigation revealed the Air Force has serious flaws in control and
accountability.
This administration has gone out of its way to obfuscate and avoid
responsibility for some of the worst governmental failures in history.
The total lack of planning and the dismissal of contrary viewpoints in
the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq has resulted in a military
operation whose costs in blood and treasure seems to have no end.
Never
mind the extraordinarily lackluster response to Hurricane Katrina
almost three years ago that exposed the enormous shortcomings in
government preparedness and the President's penchant for patronage in
his appointment of horse racing judge Michael Brown to FEMA who later
resigned as a scapegoat. Unfortunately, we may never know the full
extent of such bungling.