Also like McArthur, Gen’l Mattis seemed to display a mindset in which he did not take orders from the Commander in Chief.
I respect his service. But I don't think he was a great Sec. of Defense.
It's probably hard to go from taking orders to figuring it out. And, lets face it, even as a three-star you are in taking orders mode. Executing someone else's plan.
In his Sec. of Defense role he famously quit in disgust over Trump not agreeing to a bigger presence in Syria.
OK, it's 9 months later, now. ISIS is still broken to bits, we haven't started a war with Russia, the USA doesn't have troops in Syria and you can basically sum this up as:
Trump was right.
Trump was keeping his campaign promise not to get over-involved in all sorts of military escapades, which even guys like Obama who probably didn't want to start wars initially, ended up doing.
The military has it's own logic, and sometimes it does get itself tied up in knots. Afghanistan is a great example. The military logic keeps saying we can't leave, but we've been there for almost 20 years, so the logic is queer.
Trump has an ability to see through conventional wisdom that great leaders have. He cut right through it with his Syria decision.
Mattis, for all his PR and resume, just wasn't nearly as good as the hype suggested as a strategic leader. Maybe he was the greatest logistics officer ever, or was good at organizing troops, or good at motivating them. There are many leadership skills needed in the military.
But at the core task of strategy he was bested by an untrained amature. Ouch. He's still smarting from that, and thus his current book tour. "I was smarter and I know it!".
Look at all the loser's Trump has put on book tours: Hillary (literally her book was called "What happened", lol), Comey, McCabe, Mattis, Sean Spicer, Anthony Scaramucci, Tillerson, Omarosa ...
Generalized Synopsis of ex-Trump offical's books:
Trump fired me - but I am really smarter than him. Really. He's not a good person. Did I mention Trump fired me. That was very unfair and stupid, because I am really great. Better than Trump.