Posted on 12/21/2018 8:39:00 PM PST by robowombat
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE 3000 DEFENSE PENTAGON WASHINGTON, DC 2030i 41060
December 20, 2018
Dear Mr. President:
I have been privileged to serve as our country?s 26th Secretary of Defense which has allowed me to serve alongside our men and women of the Department in defense of our citizens and our ideals.
I am proud of the progress that has been made over the past two years on some of the key goals articulated in our National Defense Strategy: putting the Department on a more sound budgetary footing, improving readiness and lethality in our forces, and reforming the Department?s business practices for greater performance. Our troops continue to provide the capabilities needed to prevail in con?ict and sustain strong U.S. global in?uence.
One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies. Like you, I have said from the beginning that the armed forces of the United States should not be the policeman of the world. Instead, we must use all tools of American power to provide for the common defense, including providing effective leadership to our alliances. 29 democracies demonstrated that strength in their commitment to fighting alongside us following the 9-11 attack on America. The Defeat?ISIS coalition of 74 nations is ?irther proof.
Similarly, I believe we must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with ours. It is clear that China and Russia, for example, want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model gaining veto authority over other nations? economic, diplomatic, and security decisions to promote their own interests at the expense of their neighbors, America and our allies. That is why we must use all the tools of American power to provide for the common defense.
My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues. We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances.
Because you?have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position. The end date for my tenure is February 28, 2019, a date that should allow suf?cient time for a successor to be nominated and con?rmed as well as to make sure the Department?s interests are properly articulated and protected at upcoming events to include Congressional
I see ... so taking sides in foreign civil wars is now "the common defense."
Good riddance to this @sshole. "Mad D!ck" Mattis, indeed.
Just the way McNoName and his daughter gushed over him, I knew he was a globalist. I’m glad he’s out.
Fine, thank you. The direction is forward, none of this matters any more.
We need a real Marine like Chesty Puller or a real sailor like Hyman Rickover to get the Pentagon deadwood flushed out!
Because if this is what Mattis has been thinking to himself he never should have accepted the job.
Mighty fine letter from a great General who believes in land troops and righteous warfare. I salute him with all due respect and admiration and I hold him in the greatest esteem. I’m certain he’s one of our greatest generals! I’m also certain President Trump was benefited by the service of General Mattis.
However, like General Mattis pointed out, President Trump is entitled to have a Secretary of Defense more aligned with his views, I find myself in agreement with the great General!
Well stated.
Trump had the ACE up his sleeve again. Saudi Arabia is replacing our troops on Syria border with theirs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The whole reason that the founders put civilians in charge of the military was in recognition that the military has one job, blow things up and kill people. The people’s representatives decide the direction of foreign policy. Mattis was a hell of a soldier and his views are logical from a soldier’s point of view but I support Trump keeping his campaign pledge to get us out of Syria and Afghanistan. There’s nothing there worth any more American blood and treasure. Besides, he’s already replaced our troops on the ground with regionally appropriate Saudi troops after taking serious heat re: Kashoggi for the Saudi prince. Well played Mr. President.
Mattis has always hit me more as a Lap Dog of the swamp than a Mad Dog.
Hate to say it, but he’s another poor pick by Trump in a long list of poor picks.
One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies.
This is a tune that is played incessantly to officers of all branches from serviced ROTC year one, over and over. It is something that was once true during WW2 and the first half of the Cold War but has now become a shibboleth whose doctrinal utility is never examined. Alliances are only good for what good they can do a nation. This chestnut has become holy writ because FDR and George Marshall, and Truman and Dean Acheson and Eisenhower constantly repeated it. Mattis has heard since he was in high school. It is an unexamined credo that needs challenging. No, most of our so-calledallies today just want us around to do what they won't pay for due to their welfare state policies. France relied on the US to haul its troops to Afghanistan. Why. Well the French eliminated all their heavy lift forces after one of their socialist PM’s declared that France was done with significant operations in Africa or outside Western Europe. The money could be better spent in La Belle France. During the First Gulf War this cliche reached the level of the ridiculous with Sec State Baker stalling for time to not attack Iraq by lining up a host of worthless turd world ‘allies’ to have the US pay for them to come to Saudi Arabia and sit on their butts. The most ridiculous had to be the the shoeless and worthless contingent from Senegal which showed up with no weapons and a mismatch of uniform items and no real uniforms. Of course the US taxpayer ponied up for these turds to be armed, equipped, and uniformed and the US made sure they never got close to the battles zone as they would have been as useful as Soul Train.
I would hope Trump would convoke an unofficial put powerful executive committee not full of think tank whores such as Max Butt, and do a very through examination actual US interests and security requirements vis-a-vive the treaty system. We can get along without most of the so-called allied states and they are often more a problem than part of the solution today.
I would like to see the text of the letter that fired his butt when Obama was the President. Good times.
I disliked mattis from day one. Fine field general but geopoliticaly naive and ignorant.
And apparently, a backstabbing egomaniac.
Whatever - cabinet members come and go, often due to policy differences with the president. Several of Obama’s Defense Secretaries criticized him after they resigned, too - I don’t remember the media gasping in horror then.
As a retired veteran, I think a person owes their commander honesty and loyalty. It’s OK to not agree with the boss. One is obligated, however, to bring up those disagreements and state one’s case. Once the final decision is made, it’s up to the subordinate to carry out the commander’s policies to the absolute best of one’s ability.
This is where I have a problem with Mattis. From his resignation, it sounds like he fundamentally disagrees with the CINC on major issues. It also appears he slow walked Trump’s policies for the last two years (although I don’t have proof of that). If one cannot carry out the boss’s wishes to the best of one’s abilities, resign and get out of the way.
An honorable person, I think, wouldn’t even take the job in the first place if they knew, as Mattis should have, that they didn’t agree with what Trump campaigned on. Americans are tired of being Team America World Police, and Trump promised to end all these foreign wars and police actions.
Mattis was less than ideal.
All you have to do is research Mattis’ resistance and deliberate foot dragging on ending trannies in uniform and discharging those who are already in. Lots of whining about ‘protecting the rights of our transsexual service members’. Mattis has been brainwashed by the K Street Beltway establishment. What ever the Wa Po says is gospel.
While I've always been a fan of Mattis, and agree with much of what he said, it was petty, unprofessional and insubordinate to publicly air his dissension with the CINC. He is basically saying he can't work for a CINC who doesn't provide effective leadership to our alliances, nor treat our allies with respect, then goes on to lecture the President about the geopolitical ambitions of Russia and China. This is the kind of stuff you say, very bluntly but respectfully, behind a closed door; not in your public resignation letter. This was a bit of a knife in the back.
I suspect this is strategic. This is Mattis publicly distancing himself from Trump, and what he sees as future failures of US international and geopolitical goals. In reality, the "new world order" of the past two decades has so damaged our economy and military, Trump has a near impossible task to prevent a coming decline. Mattis knows Trump, and by extension he himself, will be blamed. Of course, should Trump succeed, Mattis still looks great. So, distance...
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