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There’s been a fair amount of Trump-supporter braggadocio regarding the President-elect’s nomination of Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis as the new Defense Secretary – an admirable choice, certainly. If Mad Dog can navigate the machinations of the Pentagon as well as he did the battlefield we’re in for a rejuvenation of America’s military that should be a major reversal of its downward fortunes over the past few decades. I hope that Mr. Trump fully appreciates the magnitude of the task he has set before Gen. Mattis. That task that has grown steadily in size and complexity since the end of...

ISIS has been on a global murder spree in 2016. From Paris to Berlin and Ohio State to Orlando, the Islamic Satanists have been emboldened by the speak softly and deploy James Taylor national security policies from the White House and the Jim Jones national suicide open borders directives from German chancellor Angela Merkel. It’s been open season for ISIS to shoot, behead, torture, run over and blow to smithereens any array of soft targets that they can find from one end of the planet to the other; in cafes, in theaters, in offices, in night clubs, on college campuses...

History can either be a Schoolmaster or a Mistress. It depends on the intent of the reader. It also depends on what the reader considers sacrosanct. We all tend to hold certain things as so inviolable as to make objective questioning that might breach that privately held trust, unacceptable. This is all fine when the only thing that might be defiled is our personal conscience or even the feelings of another. But when the thing or person questioned, has power and the ability to send men and women, who have selflessly granted those certain powers unfettered access unto death, those...

We are now in a kind of political no-man's-land between an administration on its way out and a new administration taking shape. Predictions are always risky — and nowhere more so than in times like these. What we can do, however, is assess where we are, and what some of the opportunities and dangers are. The opportunities are many, which is to say that many things are in desperate need of changing, beginning with rebuilding our dangerously neglected and undermined military forces. The monstrosity of ObamaCare needs to be gotten rid of, not just cosmetically adjusted. Our fundamental freedoms under...

Donald Trump is about to lead the West into the third and darkest phase of its 15-year quest to neutralize the threat of Islamic extremism. The first was George W. Bush’s freedom initiative, which posited that political liberalization in the Middle East’s rotting autocracies would dry up terrorist recruiting. The second was the engagement policy of Barack Obama, who bet that respectful dialogue and attention to Muslim demands for justice — above all for the Palestinians — would make the West a less compelling target. Both were widely judged to be failures. Now the new president will embrace the approach...

Short (2:30) video of WSJ interview with General Mattis on why young people should join the military

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense called the 2003 invasion of Iraq a “mistake,” according to a recording obtained by The Intercept. “Ladies and gentlemen,” Mattis said, “we will probably look back on the invasion of Iraq as a mistake — as a strategic mistake.” Mattis was one of the Iraq campaign’s most important ground commanders. He led the 1st Marine Division during the invasion and later oversaw the bloody retaking of Fallujah from insurgents in 2004. As for the Pentagon’s view on the Iraq invasion at the time, Mattis said this: “I think people were pretty much...

President-elect Donald Trump continued his "Thank You" victory tour on Tuesday, making a stop in North Carolina to tout his national security agenda and formally introduce his pick for Defense Secretary, retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis. Speaking in Fayetteville, N.C., Trump called Mattis the "living embodiment of the Marine Corps motto" — Semper Fidelis. "Mad Dog plays no games, right?" Trump asked, invoking the general's nickname, and added that the country was fortunate "that a man of this character and integrity will now be the civilian leader atop the Department of Defense."

Departing New York with General James 'Mad Dog' Mattis for tonight's rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina! See you… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…

<p>In the aftermath of the Raymond Davis and bin Laden affairs, General James Mattis was key in maintaining ties with top Pakistani military leadership.</p> <p>New Delhi: The next US secretary of defence was the Obama administration's main man to keep a line open and bring ties with the top Pakistani military leadership back on an even keel in the dark days following the arrest of a CIA contractor and the killing of Osama bin Laden.</p>

The first Senate Democrat has come out against one of President-elect Donald Trump's more popular cabinet nominees, as Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York says she won't back a special waiver for the general. 'While I deeply respect General Mattis's service, I will oppose a waiver,' Gillibrand said in a statement. 'Civilian control of our military is a fundamental principle of American democracy, and I will not vote for an exception to this rule.' Mattis' wartime experiences as a 'fighting general' and his intellect have won him strong early reviews from Republicans and Democrats, including Rep. Adam Schiff, the top...

This week, Trump made two critically important picks for his Cabinet: James “Mad Dog” Mattis at Defense, and Steve Mnuchin at Treasury. In Mattis, the United States will have a highly decorated, recently retired four star Marine general heading the Pentagon. Although he will require an exemption from Congress to take office (rules stipulate that Defense Secretaries be out of active service for at least seven years), this brilliant warrior is uniquely qualified to rebuild the United States Armed Forces. With Steve Mnuchin, Trump has selected one of the finest financial minds in the world today. Best luck to Mnuchin...

For General Mattis, the position of Secretary of Defense wouldn’t be just another inside-the-Beltway badge to add to his resume. The greatest danger would be that he would prove too honest for D.C. Yet another quality Mattis would bring to the office—a vital one—is that he’s a superb listener (yet another rare quality in Washington). He’s not quick to speak, but when he finally does have his say, his words show command of the subject under discussion. And he uses words with the same economy as a rifleman uses bullets: no wasted rounds. As a member of the Hoover Institution’s...

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) came out against Donald Trump’s selection of retired Marine Gen. James Mattis for secretary of Defense, saying she would not support a necessary congressional waiver to allow him to take on the role. Gillibrand is the first lawmaker to oppose waiving the prohibition on former military officers heading the Pentagon less than seven years after retiring. “While I deeply respect General Mattis’s service, I will oppose a waiver,” she said in a statement. “Civilian control of our military is a fundamental principle of American democracy, and I will not vote for an exception to this rule.”...

Don't know about link rules regarding AOL, so I'll just use the link.

Leftists foam at the mouth and gnash their teeth Obama foe and retired Marine Corps Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis will be the nation’s new Secretary of Defense if President-elect Donald Trump gets his way. “I will not tell you that one of our great, great generals—don’t let it outside of this room,” an impish Trump told a Cincinnati audience last night. “We are going to appoint ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis as our secretary of defense ... but we are not announcing it until Monday, so don’t tell anyone. He’s great.”

America knows Gen. James Mattis as a character, Mad Dog Mattis, the font of funny quotes and Chuck Norris-caliber memes. Those of us who served with him know that he is a caring, erudite, warfighting general. We also know that there is a reason he uses the call-sign Chaos: he is a lifelong student of his profession, a devotee of maneuver warfare and Sun Tzu, the sort of guy who wants to win without fighting—to cause chaos among those he would oppose.

Donald Trump has made a number of promising picks for his cabinet, but surely none better than his selection of my Hoover Institution colleague General James Mattis as secretary of defense. His record shows clearly that he’s a great man—the loyalty he inspires and the way he treats others shows, even more important, that he’s a good one. I’ll let others more expert in military matters chime in about the specifics of his strategies and tactics, but, while there are certainly many others who know him far better than I, there are some things I can say about General Mattis...

This viral email from General James 'Mad Dog' Mattis about being 'too busy to read' is a must-read Just before Marine Gen. James 'Mad Dog' Mattis was getting ready to deploy with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force to Iraq in early 2004, one of his colleagues asked him about the importance of reading for military officers who sometimes found themselves "too busy to read." The legendary general sometimes referred to as "The Warrior Monk" carted around a personal library of 6,000 books with him everywhere, and he had plenty to say on the topic. His response went viral over email,...

Lt. Gen. James Mattis (USMC) is known as one of the most accomplished commanders in recent history and as one of the finest Marines to walk this planet. He also is a dedicated reader, and credits some of his success in the middle east to studying the works of those who had gone before him. This list is assembled from this list of required reading for CENTCOM USMC officers