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President Trump said Thursday evening that Defense Secretary James Mattis will be retiring in February, in a shock announcement adding to the list of the president's outgoing Cabinet members after his second year in office.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/defens ... trump-says

Secretary Mattis' full resignation letter:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/r ... ion-letter

Says Trump needs someone ‘whose views are better aligned with yours’ kinda says it all.

I’m glad Trump knows more than the Generals

“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.”

Ouch.

Essentially resigning in protest, foretelling some foreign policy fuckups coming soon. Fortunately the economy is doing greaaaaaa

Lefties: "We can't leave Syria. We can't leave Afghanistan." (Under Trump.) Fuckin' hypocrites.

I'm sad for the Kurds because they'll probably get fucked - they have been loyal allies. Although, what choice did they have?
Otherwise, I wish we could nuke the ME from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

johno wrote: ↑Fri Dec 21, 2018 6:15 am Lefties: "We can't leave Syria. We can't leave Afghanistan." (Under Trump.) Fuckin' hypocrites.

You forgot to mention Hillary’s emails.

Trump is doing the same stupid Obama did. I guess he’s a leftie too.

johno wrote: ↑Fri Dec 21, 2018 6:15 am Lefties: "We can't leave Syria. We can't leave Afghanistan." (Under Trump.) Fuckin' hypocrites.

Announcing a Syria departure over the objections of essentially all of your hand-picked senior advisors, without telling them in advance, via Tweet, without any plan, is stupid. It's stupid regardless of the relative merits of a departure. It's also highly likely he will fuck the drawdown up, as he has every foreign policy effort so far, which will be pretty unfortunate for the Kurds and others.

I had to double check you actually wrote this new post, because you also wrote this:

johno wrote:So that's why I voted for Trump. The thing I truly love about Trump is that he takes it to the media. And I love that he comes from a World of Getting Shit Done, as opposed to Talking Purty (Obama, Kerry, etc.). Many of his cabinet picks reflect that: Mattis & Tillerson, for starters.

The two people you specifically cite have called him a fucking moron and resigned in protest essentially calling him the same thing in his resignation letter.

Great rebuttals of what I didn't say. I didn't criticize Mattis in any way. Or defend Trump.

I criticized the Left, sympathized with the Kurds, and identified the ME as a quagmire.

A majority of the Left hates US power. Period. They celebrated when Obama abandoned Iraq against military advice, or at least gave him a pass on it. And gave him a pass on his abandonment of his Red Line in Syria. And largely gave a pass on his botch in Libya.

As to Mattis and Trump, the Left barely gave notice to the rapid destruction of the ISIS caliphate, I suspect because Trump's & Mattis's triumphs would make Obama look so weak by comparison. The same for Trump's punishment of Syria for gassing its citizens.

I have complete faith that if the Syria situation worsens, Trump will get full blame, and will deserve it. And the Left and the media will trumpet that failure.

johno wrote: ↑Fri Dec 21, 2018 6:09 pmA majority of the Left hates US power.

I think I know what you mean, but define "US power."

Killing motherfuckers 'n shit.

johno wrote: ↑Fri Dec 21, 2018 7:28 pm Killing motherfuckers 'n shit.

That's not power. That's violence.

It's a case of the ship leaving a sinking rat.

Yes I Have Balls wrote: ↑Fri Dec 21, 2018 11:02 pm

johno wrote: ↑Fri Dec 21, 2018 7:28 pm Killing motherfuckers 'n shit.

That's not power. That's violence.

The riddle of steel

IMO, Mattis will be missed. But he is not irreplaceable. It's hard to know how his resignation will impact military morale.

From Trump, about the guy who has been spearheading the fight against ISIS spanning a bunch of Presidents, who put together the Syrian Kurd force that took down Raqqa and killed reams of ISIS:

"Brett McGurk, who I do not know..."

nafod wrote: ↑Fri Dec 21, 2018 12:10 am I’m glad Trump knows more than the Generals

Been a "problem" since the founding of the Republic. Civilian control of the military.

Lincoln fired General McClellan. Truman fired General MacArthur. Carter fired General Singlaub. Obama fired General Mattis, same person who is quitting Trump.

Obama has how much military experience? More or less than Trump?

Trump fucked up. He hired a neo-Con like Mattis as his Sec Def. Neo-Cons are always going to get you into trouble.

Mattis's remarks about "respecting our allies" are hysterical.

Could Trump do any worse than Bush's antics for eight years? "You're with us or against us". Bombing and drone strikes in Waziristan, a part of Afghanistan and Pakistan. How many terrorists did our drone strikes cause?

Using allies to host "black sites" where people were tortured, in some cases were boiled alive. Poland, Romania, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Jordan and Egypt were places were people were beaten, abused, raped by dogs and boiled alive in cauldrons. This kind of crap is an example of respect to our allies and friends? We also dragged soldiers of their countries into the Afghan quagmire. We were going to smoke them out of their holes.

How about Obama's abuse of our ally Egypt, fucking with their elections, supporting a Muslim brotherhood candidate? Invading Pakistan many times. Using Jordan as a training camp for throat cutters and cannibals to perfect their terror skills in Syria. Spying on the Germans and who knows who else. Fucking off EU allies in Ukraine because our business interests came first.

Anyone else wonder why Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, got himself a Director of Legal affairs position at Burisma Holdings? Does Hunter speak any Ukrainian? Joe Biden is the lead contender for US Democratic candidate in 2020. This bozo abused the people of Ukraine by putting nut cases like Poroshenko over them. Where is General Mattis on that one?

How many times did both Presidents abuse Allies? Get good people killed. For what?

Gen Mattis did a lot of good service to the country. I think his remarks about "allies" is kind of insulting, unless you just hate Trump.