military officer like myself, especially if you have people under commander, people underneath of you who need to know if you're in the hospital. the fact that he didn't notify the white house, it's just a hedge fracture to anyone in the military, especially at the upper levels, especially commissioned, officers and those with the responsibility like general officer. it's a baffling thing. i'm not quite sure why that decision would've been made. >> denver, let's talk about while this is going on with lloyd austin, what's going on in the middle east? that's really what's giving a lot of us concerned since lloyd austin has been hospitalized, we've seen the following by the u.s., the u.s. carried out a drone attack on the leader of an iranian-backed militia in baghdad, iraq. bases with americans have come under fire, an attack against commercial ships in the red. see what kind of impact could the absence of a secretary defense happen or military readiness? >> that's a fantastic question. you would hope that some of the strikes were pre-authorized. they were already in the, works which is what i would suspect