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The Mattis Repercussions: Why Trump’s handling of Syria and the Pentagon this week is so damaging.
Wall Street Journal ^ | December 21, 2018

Posted on 12/22/2018 5:10:53 AM PST by reaganaut1

...

The more lasting damage will derive from the shoddy, humiliating way Mr. Trump treated the secretary and his generals on such a core military issue as deployments in Syria. Jim Mattis is not some neoconservative bent on staying in Syria for years. He is less hawkish on Syria and Iran than national security adviser John Bolton or Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Yet in deciding to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, Mr. Trump acted on his own impulses with little more than cursory consultation with his military advisers. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has let it be known he wasn’t consulted at all. A month ago Gen. Dunford told Congress that Islamic State wasn’t defeated, but on Thursday Mr. Trump declared victory.

It’s one thing to advise a President and be overruled. But it undercuts the Pentagon’s authority to learn after the fact that the Commander in Chief has acted without so much as fare thee well. As Gen. Dunford’s immediate supervisor in the chain of command, Mr. Mattis must have been embarrassed as well.

This is about more than two egos, though both the general and Mr. Mattis are modest men. This is about the message Mr. Trump is sending to the men and women under their command. He is telling soldiers that he will act on uninformed impulse, after a phone conversation from a Turkish dictator, without deliberation or due respect. Mr. Trump should know that tens of thousands of his “deplorables” are in uniform or are veterans. He has stuck a finger in their eye.

Then there is the disdain his Syrian withdrawal shows for allies, especially the Kurds and Arabs in the Syrian Democratic Forces. These have been our ground forces in clearing out the Islamic State caliphate.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: caliphate; islamicstate; mattis; mcgurk; pentagonprancers; perfumedprinces; syria; trump; trumpgwot
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1 posted on 12/22/2018 5:10:53 AM PST by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

What no war? Intolerable! Thru all the shutdown nonsense… Trump removes troops from Syria, and all of official (Right, Left, Center, Media) DeeCee goes nutzoid! The neo-cons and neo-Libs just love war tis seems!

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/what-the-neocon-chickenhawks-have-wrought/


2 posted on 12/22/2018 5:13:30 AM PST by FiddlePig (The greatest threat to our sacred liberty is to not value it!)
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To: reaganaut1

Neocons would still have us in every Middle East armpit hole forever.


3 posted on 12/22/2018 5:14:04 AM PST by LibFreeUSA
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To: reaganaut1

Let ‘em all resign. They’re bureaucrats, and they’re being exposed. We’re either going to stay there forever, or get out sometime. If not now, when?


4 posted on 12/22/2018 5:15:12 AM PST by Migraine
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To: reaganaut1

Oh the horror! President Trump had the nerve to end Obama’s support of terrorists.


5 posted on 12/22/2018 5:17:38 AM PST by SanchoP (Don't feed the trolls.)
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To: reaganaut1

Yeah, it’s so much better to sacrifice worthless American lives so Wall Street can make money.


6 posted on 12/22/2018 5:18:36 AM PST by McGavin999 ("The press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood."Thomas Jefferson)
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To: reaganaut1

Done with perpetual war and deep state mischief.

Gee, I wonder when the next chem attack happens in Syria?

Arming terrorists is disgusting.


7 posted on 12/22/2018 5:18:47 AM PST by dforest (Just shut up Obama. Maybe everyone should just shut up!)
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To: reaganaut1

Did the neo-cons at the execrable WSJ get upset about this?

Obama’s Military Coup Purges 197 Officers In Five Years

https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/197-military-officers-purged-by-obama/


8 posted on 12/22/2018 5:21:06 AM PST by sergeantdave (Teach a man to fish and he'll steal your gear and sell it)
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To: reaganaut1

The last time I looked at a map of ISIS territory in Syria, it was obvious to me that “troops” ain’t the problem.

What we need is an easement.


9 posted on 12/22/2018 5:21:50 AM PST by OkiMusashi (Beware the fury of a patient man. --- John Dryden)
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To: Migraine

We should reduce our forces in Italy rather than Syria

There are more American troops in Italy than Afghanistan

Containing Iran is more important than containing Germany


10 posted on 12/22/2018 5:25:03 AM PST by bert ( (KE. N.P. N.C. +12) Invade Honduras. Provide a military government)
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To: reaganaut1

In the end, the President is COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

Not the Secretary of Defense, not the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, etc., etc.

The liberals loved it when Truman fired McArthur. In hind sight, I think McArthur was correct, Korea was a stalemate, either destroy the enemy or stop the war, but Truman was the boss.

Only the President has the ultimate authority, but even that is tempered, rejected or accepted by the voters every four years.

I do believe Syria is a sovereign nation and they did not invite us in. Now, as long as ISIS had de facto control over Syrian territory could we “almost” make the case to be there anyway, in fighting them, but that is over—ISIS lost.

So what legal justification actually keeps us in Syria, is what I’d ask Mattis?

The President has a DUTY to make the overall policy decisions.

The WSJ is simply off base here.


11 posted on 12/22/2018 5:25:49 AM PST by Alas Babylon! (Boycott ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and NBC!)
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To: reaganaut1

Coulter retweeted a quote, sorry I don’t know who it was: “How is Mattis going to look those families in the eye and tell them “your son/daughter is coming home?” lolol


12 posted on 12/22/2018 5:26:04 AM PST by toddausauras (Trump 2016)
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To: OkiMusashi

https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2018/12/19/2cd53c48bf2847758979f9a0daac78f4_6.jpg


13 posted on 12/22/2018 5:26:28 AM PST by OkiMusashi (Beware the fury of a patient man. --- John Dryden)
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To: reaganaut1

The editorial board of the WSJ needs a one way trip to one of these Muslim shiite holes to help in their perceived necessary war efforts.


14 posted on 12/22/2018 5:28:24 AM PST by Lent
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To: reaganaut1
The nevertrumpers, libtards, and media whackjobs are full of anaerobic fecal material.

Everyone should remember that the above miscreants were peeing and moaning when the troops were originally inserted into John McCain's Syrian civil war.

The US Forces are / were operating in a Russian kill zone” If Putin decided to “snuff” these forces just imagine the reactions form again many posters here and again the above mentioned miscreants!

15 posted on 12/22/2018 5:34:34 AM PST by texican01
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To: reaganaut1
WSJ dum-dum editors get played if not engage in play:

***********************************************************

DING-DONG!

16 posted on 12/22/2018 5:35:34 AM PST by Hostage (Article V (Proud Member of the Deranged Q Fringe))
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To: reaganaut1

Surgery is damaging. Ask any skin layer that gets cut.


17 posted on 12/22/2018 5:38:48 AM PST by cuban leaf
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To: LibFreeUSA

McCain would of had us at war with Narnia and Middle Earth if possible.


18 posted on 12/22/2018 5:39:26 AM PST by EEGator
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To: Hostage

Perfect.

“We have always been at war with Eastasia.”


19 posted on 12/22/2018 5:41:45 AM PST by EEGator
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To: Hostage
I have read and enjoyed two of Max Boot's books. But his case of Trump Derangement Syndrome is freaking embarrassing.

I had a chat last night with a friend who opposes the Syrian withdrawal decision--but only on the grounds that we have not done enough damage to ISIS in his opinion. I, for one, have never liked our deployment to Syria. My only concern is that our local allies don't get slaughtered.

Are these clowns actually trying to tell me that the Assad Regime, the Iranians, and the Russians can't handle ISIS in Syria now?

20 posted on 12/22/2018 5:45:01 AM PST by Lysandru
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