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DonViejo

(60,536 posts)
Thu Dec 1, 2016, 05:36 PM Dec 2016

Trump has chosen retired Marine Gen. James Mattis for secretary of defense

Source: The Washington Post

By Dan Lamothe December 1 at 4:00 PM

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen retired Marine Gen. James N. Mattis to be secretary of defense, according to people familiar with the decision, nominating a former senior military officer who led operations across the Middle East to run the Pentagon less than four years after he hung up his uniform.

To take the job, Mattis will need Congress to pass new legislation to bypass a federal law stating that defense secretaries must not have been on active duty in the previous seven years. Congress has granted a similar exception just once, when Gen. George C. Marshall was appointed to the job in 1950.

An announcement is likely by early next week, according to the people familiar with the choice.

Mattis, 66, retired as the chief of U.S. Central Command in spring 2013 after serving more than four decades in the Marine Corps. He is known as one of the most influential military leaders of his generation, serving as a strategic thinker while occasionally drawing rebukes for his aggressive talk. Since retiring, he has served as a consultant and as a visiting fellow with the Hoover Institution, a think tank at Stanford University.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-has-chosen-retired-marine-gen-james-mattis-for-secretary-of-defense/2016/12/01/6c6b3b74-aff9-11e6-be1c-8cec35b1ad25_story.html?utm_term=.198e681d6838&wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-politics%252Bnation

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Trump has chosen retired Marine Gen. James Mattis for secretary of defense (Original Post) DonViejo Dec 2016 OP
He wants him so change the law. rzemanfl Dec 2016 #1
This is just the beginning. rickford66 Dec 2016 #2
They will have to hang me from a lampost for defeatism. n/t rzemanfl Dec 2016 #3
If Trump knows more than the generals, couldn't he find someone qualified? keithbvadu2 Dec 2016 #4
A really good reason for that law exboyfil Dec 2016 #5
The GOP/KGB likes the rule of law except when it doesn't suit them LastLiberal in PalmSprings Dec 2016 #6
His Marine nickname is Mad Dog Mattis. I'm sure he'll make great recommendations to notmypresident hedda_foil Dec 2016 #7
My jury is out. AtheistCrusader Dec 2016 #8
All appointees have their pluses and minuses... Johnyawl Dec 2016 #10
Mattis also supports a 2 state solution SQUEE Dec 2016 #12
So How Did RobinA Dec 2016 #14
Heh. flying rabbit Dec 2016 #15
One of his better cabinet choices IMO, especially given the other options. n/t Calista241 Dec 2016 #9
Probably his best appointment to date (low bar of course) nt geek tragedy Dec 2016 #11
Robert Reich's Facebook post on the Mattis choice: MBS Dec 2016 #13

rzemanfl

(29,540 posts)
1. He wants him so change the law.
Thu Dec 1, 2016, 05:40 PM
Dec 2016

Ya Mein Fuerher! WTF is with these people? Or does he think 13 + 7=17?

rickford66

(5,498 posts)
2. This is just the beginning.
Thu Dec 1, 2016, 05:45 PM
Dec 2016

There will be more laws changed or ignored for the "good of the country".

keithbvadu2

(36,371 posts)
4. If Trump knows more than the generals, couldn't he find someone qualified?
Thu Dec 1, 2016, 05:50 PM
Dec 2016

Like a son-in-law or a daughter or son of his own?

exboyfil

(17,857 posts)
5. A really good reason for that law
Thu Dec 1, 2016, 05:58 PM
Dec 2016

To be overridden only once and that for George Marshall??? Especially will a political neophyte with no international experience (or even political experience). Also his NSA is a recently retired general as well. If Petraeus is SoS then we have the hat trick.

Wow.

What could possibly go wrong.

Folks should read about the Cuban Missile Crisis and think what would have happened if you did not have restraint from the civilian control of the military.

6. The GOP/KGB likes the rule of law except when it doesn't suit them
Thu Dec 1, 2016, 06:09 PM
Dec 2016

Trump doesn't care about either rules or laws. Or ethics, for that matter.

hedda_foil

(16,368 posts)
7. His Marine nickname is Mad Dog Mattis. I'm sure he'll make great recommendations to notmypresident
Thu Dec 1, 2016, 06:41 PM
Dec 2016

Another sooper dooper appointment by our very own Hitler in waiting.

AtheistCrusader

(33,982 posts)
8. My jury is out.
Thu Dec 1, 2016, 06:56 PM
Dec 2016
None of the widely touted new technologies and weapons systems "would have helped me in the last three years [in Iraq and Afghanistan]. But I could have used cultural training [and] language training. I could have used more products from American universities [who] understood the world does not revolve around America and [who] embrace coalitions and allies for all of the strengths that they bring us."
Speaking at a professional conference on military transformation, urging the Pentagon to invest in efforts that would "diminish the conditions that drive people to sign up for these kinds of insurgencies." Breaking the Warrior Code (February 2005)


He is not a stupid man. It does concern me that on some level, he is a person who enjoys killing people he has deemed worth killing. That's a scary, troubling thought.

On the other hand, he has history of not wanting to fight when it can be avoided, and he values intellect above brute force.

In this age, I don’t care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are, if you cannot create harmony—even vicious harmony—on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete. We have got to have officers who can create harmony across all those lines.
At the May 2010 JFCOM Conference Ares blog, Aviation Week (June 2010)


And possibly the most encouraging thing he is on record saying;

"I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all."
After the invasion of Iraq -and after sending his tanks and artillery home- Mattis sent this message to the Iraqi leaders in every area his men served in, as quoted in Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (2006) by Thomas E. Ricks; as excerpted in Armed Forces Journal (August 2006)


He strikes me as something of a living weapon, dangerous, but only unleashed in dire need.
Remains to be seen how often he will tell Trump 'Mr. President, sir that is a bad idea.'

Johnyawl

(3,205 posts)
10. All appointees have their pluses and minuses...
Thu Dec 1, 2016, 08:02 PM
Dec 2016

Mad Dog's +'s:
He's brilliant
He's spent his life studying war, and he's good at it
He's not afraid to speak his mind - if anybody in tRump's cabinet is going to tell him "No sir, you're wrong" it'll be Mattis.
HE HATES PUTIN He has publically claimed that Putin's ultimate goal is to split NATO up.

Mad Dog's -'s:
He's a hard ass on Iran.


Note: He's pretty much worshipped by the rank and file Marines, the currently serving and the veterans of the GWoT.

SQUEE

(1,315 posts)
12. Mattis also supports a 2 state solution
Thu Dec 1, 2016, 10:05 PM
Dec 2016

And is very outspoken on his officers needing to learn the ways, mores and beliefs of the people they are fighting against, and fighting for overseas.

He is also very likely to tell Trump to get bent if he ever goes against the Constitution.
He was a General in the mold of Patton and Sherman, and believes waging war should be brutal, but short and focused. This is truly a humane view if you look at it with an open mind.

Neither of those 2 great warriors could navigate the slimy waters of political power, I doubt he will be able to either.


MBS

(9,688 posts)
13. Robert Reich's Facebook post on the Mattis choice:
Thu Dec 1, 2016, 10:19 PM
Dec 2016

Posted around 2 hours ago (~ 7 pm) at
https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/?fref=ts

1. Mattis’s candor has often got him into trouble and signaled values that might be worrisome. He’s known for saying, “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.” In 2005 he described fighting in Afghanistan this way: “Actually, it’s quite fun to fight them, you know. It’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people, I’ll be right up front with you. I like brawling . . . You go into Afghanistan, you’ve got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway, so it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.”
2. Obama fired Mattis, presumably because he was too eager for a military confrontation with Iran. Mattis believes Iran is a worse threat to stability in the Middle East than ISIS. "I consider ISIS nothing more than an excuse for Iran to continue its mischief. Iran is not an enemy of ISIS. They have a lot to gain from the turmoil in the region that ISIS creates."
3. Mattis has criticized President Obama for being naive about Iran’s intentions and Congress for being “pretty much absent” on last year’s nuclear deal, and has argued that the nuclear inspections may fail to prevent Iran from seeking to develop nuclear weapons, but that "If nothing else at least we will have better targeting data if it comes to a fight in the future."
4. Mattis seems to be extraordinarily popular with the troops.
A Secretary of Defense who shoots his mouth off and seems trigger happy would be less worrisome if his boss didn't share the same traits.
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