The punishment fits the crime

From Reuters:

Air Force leadership fired over nuclear issue
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired the Air Force's top two officials on Thursday after mistakes involving their most sensitive mission -- the safety and security of America's nuclear weapons.

Gates said two incidents -- the shipment of nuclear missile fuses to Taiwan and the cross-country flight by an Air Force bomber wrongly armed with nuclear weapons -- exposed a systemic problem in the Air Force and an erosion of nuclear standards.

"Both the ... nuclear weapons transfer incident and the Taiwan misshipment, while different in specifics, have a common origin -- the gradual erosion of nuclear standards and a lack of effective oversight by Air Force leadership," he told reporters.

"A credible nuclear deterrent has been essential to our security as a nation, and it remains so today. The safety, security and reliability of our nuclear weapons and associated components are of paramount importance."

Good on Gates for having the stones to take out the problem starting from the top down. The Air Force is not a personal fiefdom, it is a branch of the United States Military and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is its leader behind President Bush.