Raising the Bar at the Pentagon

[Woodmonkey]

Raising the Bar at the Pentagon

It’s not often in American politics or government that officials are held accountable these days, so Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s decision to fire the top two Air Force leaders on Thursday was as surprising as it was commendable.

Mr. Gates made accountability a priority after taking office 18 months ago, and he removed senior Army officers following disclosures of deplorable conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. But never before had both a service secretary (the Air Force’s Michael W. Wynne, a civilian) and a service chief (Gen. T. Michael Moseley) been forced to resign simultaneously. It was an absolutely necessary move.

The conditions at Walter Reed were bad enough. The reasons for dismissing Mr. Wynne and General Moseley were also alarming and intolerable: systemic problems in securing nuclear weapons and components, a primary Air Force responsibility.

The problems first surfaced when it was disclosed last year that the Air Force unknowingly let a B-52 bomber fly across the United States carrying six nuclear-armed cruise missiles. Then in March, it was discovered that four high-tech nose cone fuses for Minuteman nuclear warheads were sent — a year and a half earlier — to Taiwan in place of helicopter batteries.

The dismissals were ordered after a Pentagon inquiry found “a pattern of poor performance” by the Air Force in securing sensitive military components. The decline in Air Force standards had been identified as a problem but had not been effectively addressed for more than a decade, it concluded.

That’s more than a little unnerving. Since 9/11, President Bush has repeatedly said keeping nuclear weapons safe and out of the hands of terrorists and other adversaries is a priority. That is why the United States has spent millions of dollars trying to secure nuclear stockpiles at vulnerable facilities in Russia and other countries. Now, as we have seen not once but twice, America’s own vaunted military failed to perform one of the most essential missions required to protect the country — securing the nuclear arsenal.

How did the Air Force miss that message? Or was everybody at the Pentagon — starting with the former defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld — just too focused on waging an unnecessary war in Iraq?

We applaud Mr. Gates’s quick and decisive action in this case. Now, the special task force he named to propose security upgrades must complete its work as soon as possible so President Bush, or his successor, can implement them with as little delay as possible.

The Source