Posted on 11/25/2016 10:50:43 AM PST by Future Snake Eater
Among those in the Marine Corps I taught and deployed with, Gen. (ret.) Jim Mattis is a legend. The quotes, the foxholes, the knife hands. Everyone has their favorite story. I once handed Mattis a Diet Coke out of a cooler at Quantico. A mundane act? Yes. But I’ve remembered it fondly for 12 years.
He is Chaos, Mad Dog, and the warrior monk. But we should not add secretary of defense to that list.
I have long thought of Mattis as a “break glass in case of emergency” type of leader. He was uniquely suited to his roles in the early years of the War on Terror. He is a warrior and a leader of men in the application of violence. He is not, however, a man for all seasons. Many in defense circles have been so overjoyed as the prospect of a qualified secretary, that they seemed to have forgotten to stop and ask if Mattis would, in fact, be right for the job. He is not a politician, or a wonk, or a bureaucrat. To ask him to be any of those things would be like trying to keep a wave upon the sand.
...
There are ultimately three primary reasons why we shouldn’t hope Chaos becomes secretary of defense.
1. Mattis a recently retired general and is therefore statutorily prohibited from serving as secretary of defense. And while a legislative solution is possible, this law exists for good reasons and overriding it bodes poorly for long-term civil-military relations.
2. Warfighters rarely make good bureaucrats. The Pentagon is one of the world’s largest bureaucracies, and Mattis has shown little patience for management and administration.
3. His boss won’t listen.
(Excerpt) Read more at warontherocks.com ...
I don’t know, it just seems like the SECDEF should have some (a lot of) familiarity with how the military works.
Otherwise how does he know whether or not his branch secs are feeding him a load of crap?
The CoC takes care of the whole ‘Civilian Control’ thing, so why shouldn’t the SECDEF be military? Otherwise couldn’t you also make the argument that the branch secs should be non-military too?
Exactly right imo.....I want the “Maddog”...in charge....right now....hes a Great pick.
besides/...
moslims are afraid of dogs....
The problem with the Secretary of Defense position is the concept that a civilian should be a check and balance on a warmonger machine. First of all Secretary of Defense is an oxymoron...it was first set up as a War Department, which it should be. In other words, it is counter-productive to try to harness a warmonger machine with a civilian who has no background in operating a warmonger machine. Our military should be the best warmonger machine on earth with the best military man on earth as its overall leader. Keeping the military in check is one function and advocating support for the military with the Executive and the Congressional branch is another function and the two functions are inherently mutually exclusive.
1. The Constitution says otherwise, missy.
2. He has been a leader in various parts of the DoD and has already thought about dealing with the bureaucracy and has ideas.
3. Trump knows who he’s getting. I have no doubt. I’m certain Mattis has been direct with Trump and is at ease with the answers he got or he would not have accepted the offer.
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