A Quote by Peter Bergen
In picking Gen. Jim Mattis for Defense secretary, President-elect Donald Trump has said that he found his 'Gen. George Patton.' Yet that label may not really capture what makes Mattis a distinctive choice.
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We've learned something about President-elect [Donald] Trump's choice for secretary of defense. Lawmakers in Congress intend to proper debate over whether retired General James Mattis meets a requirement for civilian control of the military.
Gen. Mattis is a warrior. What I appreciate about Gen. Mattis is he understands the principle that if you go to war, you go to war to win.
Donald Trump has brought into his cabinet James "Mad Dog" Mattis, who is Secretary of Defense. A "mad dog" is a dangerous creature. And to think of sending such a man with such a reputation into Chicago after he, President Trump, has said to our mayor and the police department: "You all better get this violence thing straight or we'll have to help you do it." They're intending to come and search homes for weapons and kill those who would advance opposition, a slaughter.
President-elect Trump has said he would like to improve relations with Russia. His choice for defense secretary views Russia as America's number one threat.
I think what you're going to get from President-elect [ Donald] Trump is all of his folks together - Rex Tillerson, James Mattis, John Kelly, CIA, Homeland Security, everyone that you would want in the room, making decisions about that particular document and treaties like that document as to how we're going move forward.
When the Defense Department was established after World War II, a law said that any defense secretary with military experience must have been out of the military at least seven years. General [James] Mattis doesn't meet that.
They [President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton] have said that everybody should root for the success of President-Elect [Donald] Trump, but what about - those are the protesters protesting President-Elect Trump.
So in his very politically-incorrect way, I think [James Mattis] is a good counterpart to Donald Trump, who doesn't read books.
The question is are you loyal to the agenda that [Donald] Trump, that President-elect Trump has put forward in terms of his view of the world and the person to which the secretary of state would function.
I'm rebuilding the military. We have great people. We have tremendous borders. I mention the F-35 because if I can save $725 million — look at that, that's a massive amount of money. And I'll save more as we make more planes. If I can save that on a small number of planes — Gen. Jim Mattis said, “I've never seen anything like this,” because he had to sign the ultimate. He had to sign the ultimate, you know. He said, “I've never seen anything like this before, as long as I've been in the military.” You know, that kind of cutting.
Intergenerational support is crucial. I feel like generations give up on each other. If you're Gen Z, you're like, "Gen X is never gonna get it." If you're Gen X, you're like, "Those Millennials are such idiots."
Nicknamed 'Mad-Dog Mattis' by his men, he was a command warrior in the old George Patton mode. He wasn't an armchair general by any definition of that much-maligned term. If a Marine re-upped at a location where he was present, he would personally go to that Marine and thank him or her for rejoining.
Mattis has been sharply critical of President Barack Obama's policies on Iran and Obama's capping of troop numbers and campaign end-dates in theaters of war such as Afghanistan and Iraq. Mattis also appears to be a skeptic of the Obama-era policy of putting women into combat roles.
President-elect [Donald] Trump has made a provocative choice for secretary of education. Betsy DeVos comes from a wealthy Michigan family. She is an advocate for school choice. That phrase means, in essence, directing public education money to charter schools, private schools or parochial schools.
The thing that strikes me, from looking at the names so far in the Donald Trump's Cabinet on the foreign policy side, is the one thing that unites them - and that's General James Mattis at the Pentagon, Mike Pompeo at the CIA, even Mitt Romney to become secretary of state - they're all very, very hawkish on Iran.
President-elect Trump has the vision. And what Mike Pence brings to the table as vice president-elect is somebody who knows Capitol Hill. So he can take Donald Trump's vision, help translate that into actual policy, legislative language, bill text, working through the process so that it ends up back on Donald Trump's desk so that he can sign it into law.
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