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The subject of North Korea represented my best chance to wrench a direct answer from Mattis. I had collected some of Trump’s more repellent tweets, and read aloud the one that I thought might overwhelm his defenses. It is a tweet almost without peer in the canon...
Mattis looked at his hands. Finally he said, “Any Marine general or any other senior servant of the people of the United States would find that, to use a mild euphemism, counterproductive and beneath the dignity of the presidency.”
originally posted by: projectvxn
Mattis and Trump disagree on Afghanistan and Syria.
Mattis left after he and Trump argued over staying in Afghanistan. No one likes to be wrong. Mattis was definitely wrong and I have a great deal of respect for Mattis. But he likes war, most Americans don't.
originally posted by: projectvxn
a reply to: 35Foxtrot
No I'm not.
He wanted more Afghanistan, Trump was talking about leaving. They disagreed because Mattis, like Dan Crenshaw and other war hawks, think there's still something to do there.
There isn't.
Mattis likes to fight. He has said so on many occasions. He thinks war is fun and likes to engage in combat. I don't hold that against him, but he shouldn't be making policy, that's for sure.
I feel you're not understanding where he is coming from.
If you're sent to war, you fight to win.
I've been there and I agree.
I hate war. It really sucks. 4 deployments and now my sons are in ROTC.
They'll probably be fighting the same wars I did.
Because people like Trump and Obama and Bush half-a$$ed things.
originally posted by: Deetermined
a reply to: 35Foxtrot
I feel you're not understanding where he is coming from.
If you're sent to war, you fight to win.
I've been there and I agree.
I hate war. It really sucks. 4 deployments and now my sons are in ROTC.
They'll probably be fighting the same wars I did.
Because people like Trump and Obama and Bush half-a$$ed things.
I totally agree that your sons will probably end up fighting the same old wars, but I'm not sure our presidents are the ones to blame. What do you think Mattis would have done differently? Honestly, no matter what any of them do, the radicals will always rise up out of somewhere. The Sunnis and Shiites have been fighting each other for over a thousand years and there's not much we can do to stop that. The most we can do is limit it. If you've got a better plan, I'd like to hear it.
originally posted by: Deetermined
a reply to: 35Foxtrot
So, in other words, you have no idea what Mattis would have done or have your own ideas on how to remedy the situation in the Middle East. Hint, there isn't any good remedy and the extent of how much we do/don't do doesn't matter when you're dealing with terrorists and radicals. Any amount of force encourages them to retaliate. It may take them longer to rebuild after using strong force against them, but it won't stop them.
originally posted by: Xcalibur254
Mattis may never openly reveal his true thoughts, but reading through this, I think his views are pretty clear.
originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: 35Foxtrot
Listen to your generals.
Like when Patton wanted to roll on against the Soviets in Germany?
Like when MacArthur wanted to take the Korean War directly to China?
Listen to Generals.... but don't follow them blindly.
That's why I said we shouldn't have gotten as involved as we did in those places.
Maybe you missed that part.
originally posted by: Deetermined
a reply to: 35Foxtrot
That's why I said we shouldn't have gotten as involved as we did in those places.
Maybe you missed that part.
I didn't miss anything. I heard you state that we shouldn't have been "AS involved", yet earlier you said that we should fight to win. What do you think a winning solution would have been?
“And don’t you have a duty to warn the country if it is endangered by its leader?”
“I didn’t cook up a convenient tradition here,” he said. “You don’t endanger the country by attacking the elected commander in chief. I may not like a commander in chief one fricking bit, but our system puts the commander in chief there, and to further weaken him when we’re up against real threats—I mean, we could be at war on the Korean peninsula, every time they start launching something.”