“Why was Mattis fired by Trump?”
Trump didn’t fire Mattis. Obama once fired Mattis, Trump never did.
“Trump returned to the lonely White House and fired Mattis.”
Except that he didn’t. Mattis resigned saying that Trump had the right to a Sec Def more aligned with his views.
“(Mattis) way of doing things was not so much kill, kill, and kill again as it was to set up a military business model that had business operations, administrators, executives, PR professionals, and lots and lots and lots of money sloshed around to locals and regional top dogs who came to think they could get rich from America’s military presence, the American military was awesome, etc. etc. etc.”
It would be hard to compose something as contrary to the facts as that. Mattis actual views aren’t hard to find:
https://www.heritage.org/middle-east/commentary/did-trump-really-beat-isis
“Secretary of Defense James Mattis outlined that President Trump “delegated authority to the right level to aggressively and in a timely manner move against enemy vulnerabilities.” This meant that when those on the ground requested airstrikes, fewer layers of sign-off were required; the approval process was decentralized and, subsequently, faster.
“Administration officials cite a March 2017 example of when U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, a Kurdish and Arab fighting force battling ISIS) asked for U.S. air transport for a surprise operation in Taqba, a Syrian town on the Euphrates and where ISIS controlled a dam. Those on the ground gave approval immediately, and the U.S. quickly air-lifted the SDF fighters. Located just twenty-five miles from Raqqa, the taking of Taqba was a major stepping-stone in the overall push into Raqqa.
“Mattis has also said that another change was a “shift from shoving ISIS out of safe locations in an attrition fight to surrounding the enemy in their strongholds so we can annihilate ISIS.”
And here:
“By taking the time up front to surround these locations, instead of simply shoving them (ISIS) from one to another and actually reinforcing them as they fall back, based on the recommendation that we made and the direction that President Trump took we now take the time to surround them. And why do we do it?
“Because the foreign fighters are the strategic threat should they return home to Tunis, to Kuala Lumpur, to Paris, to Detroit, wherever. Those foreign fighters are a threat. So by taking the time to deconflict, to surround and then attack, we carry out the annihilation campaign so we don’t simply transplant this problem from one location to another.
“And that’s the approach we take that — that basically threads the needle on a very complex battlefield.
You’re wrong. Both Obama and Trump fired Mattis. Trump rehired him because he thought Mattis had been wrongly fired by Obama and Mattis was very knowledgeable about the military, hence was an asset. But then Trump fired Mattis for a different reason than Obama.
MILITARY TIMES
“Trump insists he fired Mattis, says former defense secretary was ‘not too good’ at the job”