Posted on 12/21/2018 7:00:49 AM PST by Menehune56
President Donald Trump’s announcement on Thursday that James Mattis would be stepping down as secretary of defense in February was a shock to many conservatives ― and not in a good way. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement that he was “distressed that [Mattis] is resigning due to sharp differences with the president on ... key aspects of America’s global leadership.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Mattis wants to continue with worldwide conflicts, and Trump doesn’t. Trump wants out of 17 year wars that the military says cannot be won. Mattis is clearly a globalist, and a liberal at heart. He is a great general, and I have great respect for him, but he clearly doesn’t understand the political aspect of war. 17 years is crazy.
No panic from me. The United States MUST rethink it’s policy of war, and it’s detrimental effect on it’s citizens without any plans for victory. Maximum violence until everyone exterminated or subdued. Forget hearts and minds.
???
Somewhat louder-than-normal freakout over Trump and Mattis departure. A few thoughts. First, the willingness of leaders like Mattis and Kelly to serve in this administration has been a great service to the country. Thank them. 1/5
Second, it is not exactly unprecedented for a SecDef to leave, over policy differences or otherwise. Mattis served longer than any of Barack Obama's last *three* SecDefs, Panetta, Hagel, Carter. 2/5
Third, what's happening is the president is asserting himself and his view of the world, which is the view he campaigned and won election on. He is asking questions for which the national security establishment does not have clear, indisputable answers. 3/5
For example, beyond the Trump pledge to 'knock the hell out of ISIS,' what is the US goal in Syria? How do our 2k troops there bring that about? And in Afghanistan, what will continued involvement accomplish that we have not been able to accomplish in the last *17* years? 4/5
So beyond the freakout, Trump is asking questions that, most likely, many Americans ask about these military commitments. Will be interesting to see what public thinks on the Syria, Afghanistan issues. 5/5 End.
The Swamp is unhappy? Oh, cry me a river.
This is so beyond absurd.
Total BS as the Left & NeverTrumpers try to turn anything & everything that happens, whether ‘normal’ or not, into a negative against Trump. The good news is that Trump’s attitude is ‘damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead’ regardless of the attempts to overwhelm him with negativity.
I like Mattis. For the job of planning an invasion, or planning the rebuilding of the military, he is a good one.
I have expected Trump to replace him, though, at some point, so I’m not surprised. Especially since the debacle at the border, where Mattis made it plain he did not support Trump’s position, I have expected him to go.
But at every step I have sensed that Mattis was not on board. When Trump was confronting NK, with Iran, Mattis always seemed to be uncomfortable with it. And while he did an excellent job of dispatching ISIS, he didn’t seem to agree with Trump’s refusal to support the Al Qaeda “Syrian rebels”.
“Mattis is a homo/trans freak coddler”
Back when I learned that, that’s when I lost respect for him.
All arm-chair generals, all chicken-hawks, who love to send our brave young people to wars in foreign lands, and protect the borders of foreign countries, while ALL ARE AGAINST protecting our own borders.
As for Gen Mattis resignation, he, like all military leaders believe in keeping wars going. Without wars their jobs become less important.
I was born and raised not that far from Afghanistan. It is a desolate and mountainous country, populated by Muslim tribes who are still living with 7th century religious dogma. The British Empire could not control Afghanistan, the mighty Russian military failed as well. What is in the interest of United States to keep sending young people to die in the meat grinder of Afghanistan? They are not ready for democracy.
Democracies are best generated internally by their own people than be forced down their throats by others. The largest democracy in the world (4 times more people than United States) created their own democracy and without any foreign help and is thriving without a single military coup for 71 years.
It’s not time to panic. It’s a wake up call to President Donald J. Trump. When he finds no qualified person will want to take the Sec Def job because they don’t support these troop pullouts, he’ll come around.
The two names that have been floated out there already (General Keane and Senator Tom Cotton) have called this a mistake. They won’t take the job. So, are Freepers out there going to call Tom Cotton a neo-con new world order globalist interventionist socialist? Really?
Was Gen. Mattis in favor of transgender troops? Women in combat roles? Women in Special Forces, Rangers, SEALs? I’m just wondering how great a loss, really, is this old warrior?
Right “conservatives” are panicking. Depends on how you define conservatives. These creatures in this picture are big government neocons and Bush REPUBLICANS and are conservative legends in their own minds and resumes only.
If Mattis can’t support the Presidents foreign policies he needed to go to the house. Mattis is still defending the Post-WWII world order which is in the process of crumbling and Trump is a part of that. Tillerson was the same way, defend what you know, but what they know is past it’s prime and clearly isn’t working. They want to manage American decline rather than stop and reverse it. They failed to think outside the box.
They kind of remind me of the group of leaders in the 1960’s-1970’s who went with the notion we must learn to live with the USSR and accept it’s dominance so we can survive-detente, which only increased Soviet aggression. But they didn’t know anything else to try until Reagan came along and said in regard to the Soviets: we win and they lose. Reagan had to fight the same kind of backward thinking but was ultimately proven correct. I like Mattis but his letter bordered on insubordination I thought.
No...it’s time to #BringthemHome
Those “panicking” (if there are any doing so) are weak-sisters and fellow travelers of LIB lunacy. huffpost spews its usually misinformed/uninformed lunacy.
When Trump first took office he gave the pentagon the chance wo win Afghanistan. A few big bobs and then business as usual. If they don’t know how to win the war then they need to get out.
2,000 advisors in Syria who have now been there a couple of years and the country is still torn apart. I thin Turkey is going to hit the Kurds because of the Kurds who have been fighting for independence. Anyone who is willing to sacrifice 2,000 American lives raise your hands.
Huffington-Puffington Post gets it wrong once again.
No, this is all on Twinkle Toes Mattis. He kicked it off with that insubordinate “resignation” letter. Note no General ever did such a thing to the kenyan. Even after he fired Flynn and McChrystal.
Second, it is not exactly unprecedented for a SecDef to leave, over policy differences or otherwise. Mattis served longer than any of Barack Obama’s last *three* SecDefs, Panetta, Hagel, Carter.
None of them sniped at the kenyan on their way out of the door. I’ve never seen a bigger bunch of ingrates than these “Trump Generals.”
“Mattis is a creature of Washington. Good riddance to him.”
General Mattis is another of the unfortunate appointments on Trump’s “learning curve” as a politician. It has been unfortunate that he didn’t grasp, at the outset, that personal loyalty and commitment to his agenda were the most important factors in his choice of appointments. I think he thought that through some of his appointments, he could curry favor with the RINOs in the Congress. Looks as though that was a bad idea.
I mean look as how much more effective SoS Pompeo has been that Tillerson! And it’s a crying shame that he felt he could not replace Sessions before now. His poor initial choices have slowed his progress on his agenda immeasurably.
Which “Conservatives”? Jennifer Rubin, Billy Kristol?
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