We also need to scale the JAG back to bare minimum.
No fighting man should ever be more afraid of the JAG lawyers than he is of the enemy.
Agree 100%. They are a pox on our combat troops.
As for Gen. Mattis, I admire the man. In his excellent book “No True Glory”, Bing West recounts a meeting that Mattis had with tribal leaders before the main battle for Fallujah.
Before the major battle to take the city, Mattis, as the Marine combat leader, had a 15 minute meeting with a tribal eader named Janabi who was widely seen as the leader of the insurgents.
As the meeting ended, one of the sheikhs nervously started waving his arms to end the short meeting so they could leave, as he had been on hand at the previous meeting where the 82nd Airborne had handed Fallujah over the Marines, and they had been mortared at that meeting which injured a lot of Americans.
“We may be in for it” Kawasimi (who was Mattis’ translator) murmured to Gen. Mattis as they got up to leave.
“I hope so” said Gen. Mattis.
Gen. Mattis shook hands with Janabi before they walked out. Gen. Mattis had been warned that Janabi had previously plotted to assassinate him, in his role as commander, he had brushed off the warning.
Privately, Gen. Mattis had an emergency plan. If they were hit inside the government center (where the meeting had been taking place) as had previously happened, the General was going to arrest Janabi.
if that provoked a firefight inside the room, Gen. Mattis said was going to put two rounds in Janabi’s head.