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Appointing ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis to Lead the Pentagon Could Be Trump’s Best Decision

chuckiechan

chuckiechan

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Given the perils in the world and the easy-breezy way our adversaries have had pushing the Obama led USA around, we need to get some serious war fighting generals in charge.

There is a new sheriff in town.

“It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up there with you. I like brawling.”
For many Americans that’s the quote that has come to define James “Mad Dog” Mattis, a retired U.S. Marine general who has emerged as a front runner to take over the Pentagon under a Donald Trump administration.
It’s a quote his detractors and fans have used for years to paint him as a trigger happy maniac. The image is no doubt part of Mattis’ appeal for Trump, who has cultivated an image for himself on the campaign trail as a tough guy who’s plan for ISIS is to “bomb the **** out them,” implement torture “worse than waterboarding” and kill the families of suspected terrorists.
But Mattis is a complicated and interesting leader. Many of his fellow officers have called him a “warrior monk,” owing to his love of reading and understanding of history, politics and world cultures.
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https://warisboring.com/appointing-...trump-s-best-decision-1de5070065ed#.wnnweuc1w
 
With as big a wreck as our military is now, in part because of Obama's very poor management but not entirely, we need a "MAD DOG" at the top.

It's our only hope.
 
I also read he does not like that moniker, "mad dog".

but..."cry HAVOC, and let loose the dogs of war ", is the battle cry we need right now.

Mr. Fairbain(sp), who helped originate the British commandos, said you cannot wear white gloves in a gutter fight.

We need to take the gloves off, and fight this war like it needs to be fought....DIRTY and to win.
These ISIL guys are not exactly honorable enemies.
 
RetiredNSmilin said:
I also read he does not like that moniker, "mad dog".

but..."cry HAVOC, and let loose the dogs of war ", is the battle cry we need right now.

Mr. Fairbain(sp), who helped originate the British commandos, said you cannot wear white gloves in a gutter fight.

We need to take the gloves off, and fight this war like it needs to be fought....DIRTY and to win.
These ISIL guys are not exactly honorable enemies.
Click to expand...

His call sign was CHAOS. He was CENTCOM for a while, but.... POTUS does not appreciate it when a COCOM commander continually suggests we are being foolishly soft on Iran....


Mattis as SECDEF would be probably the best possible pick that Trump could make for almost any position.
 
It’s a quote his detractors and fans have used for years to paint him as a trigger happy maniac. The image is no doubt part of Mattis’ appeal for Trump, who has cultivated an image for himself on the campaign trail as a tough guy who’s plan for ISIS is to “bomb the **** out them,” implement torture “worse than waterboarding” and kill the families of suspected terrorists""

Lolz that literal art made me laugh..
 
Mattis is one of a long line of army and marine generals over several generations who have been obsessed about Iran. Uniformed military have for generations seen Iran as the single determining factor in the ME. They have to control it.

U.S. military was gung-ho for the 1953 CIA-MI6 coup in Iran. Persians are of course not Arabs but Iran is a central player in the ME and south Asia to include the Indian Ocean, Diego Garcia, Suez, the Gulf, Israel and the like. Iran is a wicked nasty leader in state sponsored terrorism.

Mattis however supports the negotiated agreement of the P5+1 on Iran's nuclear weapons. Mattis in April said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that there is no permanent or lasting military solution to the Iran nuclear weapons prospects or programs. Mattis sees bombing Iran facilities as rinse and repeat leading to nothing long term or lasting.

The "Mad Dog" nick supposedly refers to the intensity of Mattis, not to a belligerence. Remember, Mattis is a Marine, not a Navy clerk. Yet neither is Mattis a warmonger. The bottom line on Mattis is that as a general he thinks strategically and in coherent terms by which he synthesizes complex threads.

Trump and Mattis will meanwhile need a number two at Pentagon who can run the place day to day.
 
Tangmo said:
Mattis is one of a long line of army and marine generals over several generations who have been obsessed about Iran. Uniformed military have for generations seen Iran as the single determining factor in the ME. They have to control it.

U.S. military was gung-ho for the 1953 CIA-MI6 coup in Iran. Persians are of course not Arabs but Iran is a central player in the ME and south Asia to include the Indian Ocean, Diego Garcia, Suez, the Gulf, Israel and the like. Iran is a wicked nasty leader in state sponsored terrorism.

Mattis however supports the negotiated agreement of the P5+1 on Iran's nuclear weapons. Mattis in April said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that there is no permanent or lasting military solution to the Iran nuclear weapons prospects or programs. Mattis sees bombing Iran facilities as rinse and repeat leading to nothing long term or lasting.

The "Mad Dog" nick supposedly refers to the intensity of Mattis, not to a belligerence. Remember, Mattis is a Marine, not a Navy clerk. Yet neither is Mattis a warmonger. The bottom line on Mattis is that as a general he thinks strategically and in coherent terms by which he synthesizes complex threads.

Trump and Mattis will meanwhile need a number two at Pentagon who can run the place day to day.
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YA BUT.......the Pentagon is such a freaken mess....fixing it is far and away the most important task at hand, the ability to fix what Obama above all completely wrecked by will and lack of management skills is the most important thing needed.
 
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Hawkeye10 said:
YA BUT.......the Pentagon is such a freaken mess....fixing it is far and away the most important task at hand, the ability to fix what Obama above all completely wrecked by will and lack of management skills is the most important thing needed.
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I don't like a retired flag officer as SecDef.

In the Democratic Party I am right of the Democratic Party on military and defense, so Ashton Carter is my kind of SecDef -- Carter has directly served or formally advised 11 SecsDef and himself had been in top positions at the Pentagon to include acquisitions and also, as a nuclear physicist, Carter has as SecDef been upgrading the nuclear arsenal, which he's always seen correctly as very needed.

Many of us in the D party advocated Carter when the excellent Bob Gates retired, but OB went with former R senator Chuck Hegel. Hegel gets respect as a Vietnam War combat vet, and for enlarging his apeature beyond his isolated state of Nebraska, he wasn't up to the job. So Hegel finally got shoved out for the right guy, Carter.

Had Ash Carter had more time, the Pentagon would have been more improved than it presently is because of Ash Carter. It is already much improved over what it was even before Bob Gates got there.

Mattis is a general and a Marine to boot. Pentagon will need civilian deputies and under secretaries under Gen. Mattis, beginning with the number two, who know systems, management, how to direct, lead, and to build on the changes begun by Ash Carter and to phase in their own.
 
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Orly? said:
It’s a quote his detractors and fans have used for years to paint him as a trigger happy maniac. The image is no doubt part of Mattis’ appeal for Trump, who has cultivated an image for himself on the campaign trail as a tough guy who’s plan for ISIS is to “bomb the **** out them,” implement torture “worse than waterboarding” and kill the families of suspected terrorists""

Lolz that literal art made me laugh..
Click to expand...


Trump would do well to retain SecDef Ashton Carter.

Carter has served directly under or has formally advised the previous 11 secretaries of defense. Carter has held positions in acquisitions, policy and preparedness, high level management. A physicist, Ash Carter is in a 5-year $1 Trillion program he got through Congress to remake the nuclear arsenal to deal with Russia, CCP Dictators of China, Iran in particular.

After Carter became SecDef, U.S. ended 15 years of strategic ambiguity, i.e., Pentagon formally identified strategic adversaries of the U.S. which put Russia behind door number 1, CCP Dictators behind door number 2, Iran behind door number 3.

Trump meanwhile is advancing retired generals who have been in the middle of one military disaster after another over the past 16 years. There have been absolutely no U.S. military successes since Kosovo which was commanded by the then supreme allied commander of Nato, Army Gen. Wesley Clarke.

Trump is connecting the old swamp he says he's draining to a new swamp he's constructing by digging a connecting channel to the new one from the still filled up old one.
 
Tangmo said:
Trump would do well to retain SecDef Ashton Carter.

Carter has served directly under or has formally advised the previous 11 secretaries of defense. Carter has held positions in acquisitions, policy and preparedness, high level management. A physicist, Ash Carter is in a 5-year $1 Trillion program he got through Congress to remake the nuclear arsenal to deal with Russia, CCP Dictators of China, Iran in particular.

After Carter became SecDef, U.S. ended 15 years of strategic ambiguity, i.e., Pentagon formally identified strategic adversaries of the U.S. which put Russia behind door number 1, CCP Dictators behind door number 2, Iran behind door number 3.

Trump meanwhile is advancing retired generals who have been in the middle of one military disaster after another over the past 16 years. There have been absolutely no U.S. military successes since Kosovo which was commanded by the then supreme allied commander of Nato, Army Gen. Wesley Clarke.

Trump is connecting the old swamp he says he's draining to a new swamp he's constructing by digging a connecting channel to the new one from the still filled up old one.
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Ash Carter is good, but this was a change election both economically and internationally. There are lots of good people who are "termed out" when a new president takes over.
I think it's all connected to the meme that "This is not Obama's administration anymore and America is changing course".
 
I keep hearing comments that indicate the Right and much of the military itself believe that the Military is under funded.
Many of the military personnel I know personally all believe this.

Yet we are still at war time military spending levels and even after the Republican sequester we are still spending more than a third too much.
We should slice off at least 200 billion to get us back to where we are supposed to be.

You can spew out all the bs you like, but the numbers don't lie.
Compare pre 2003 (war time) to everything post 2003.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States

Another thing that is very deceptive is the way they put Social Security spending on the same pie chart. Social Security is only being funded by the treasury because you steal the money and spend it on T-bonds. It is self funded and does not belong on the pie chart.
You take if off the pie chart and all of a sudden you can see the true military spending numbers which are closer to 65% than 45%.

Instead of keeping it at war time spending levels until the end of time... how about we cut the waste and redundancy and track down all that lost money?
 
chuckiechan said:
Ash Carter is good, but this was a change election both economically and internationally. There are lots of good people who are "termed out" when a new president takes over.
I think it's all connected to the meme that "This is not Obama's administration anymore and America is changing course".
Click to expand...


True about the change -- the radical right has finally wrung out of the election process the result they'd dreamed of for decades. Our nightmare over here on this side where I am.

SecDef Carter has strong bipartisan support on the Senate Armed Services committee whose chairman is Sen. John McCain and of the House Armed Services Committee. The kind of energetic support Bob Gates had. This however is not enough to impact Trump, nor do Republicans on either committee want to take up a cause for an Obama guy.

In respect of Gen. Mattis, what I've come down to at this point is that you could be more than flippant to say Trump is focused on this particular general mostly or solely because of his nick "Mad Dog." The Boyz in Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang, Tehran, within ISIS and elsewhere most certainly would sit up on seeing or hearing that one.

More because of Trump than if OB or GW -- or even RR -- had put forward the name.

Whether it might be Trump or Obama or any Potus putting forward a "Mad Dog" guy as SecDef, the sworn enemies of the United States would have to wonder WT_ is going on at this point. Have people in USA and Washington lost their minds? Are we gonna get nuked by Trump, even if it might be a baby one.
 
Painter said:
I keep hearing comments that indicate the Right and much of the military itself believe that the Military is under funded.
Many of the military personnel I know personally all believe this.

Yet we are still at war time military spending levels and even after the Republican sequester we are still spending more than a third too much.
We should slice off at least 200 billion to get us back to where we are supposed to be.

You can spew out all the bs you like, but the numbers don't lie.
Compare pre 2003 (war time) to everything post 2003.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States

Another thing that is very deceptive is the way they put Social Security spending on the same pie chart. Social Security is only being funded by the treasury because you steal the money and spend it on T-bonds. It is self funded and does not belong on the pie chart.
You take if off the pie chart and all of a sudden you can see the true military spending numbers which are closer to 65% than 45%.

Instead of keeping it at war time spending levels until the end of time... how about we cut the waste and redundancy and track down all that lost money?
Click to expand...


Well said if I may say across the board fiscally speaking.

USN hasn't any need of a hundred or so more ships as Trump advocates. More ships yes, but quality and high tech war vessels, not just more of 'em.


zm7.jpg
USS Zumwalt DDG 1000 laser beam stealth destroyer to include pulse guns is designed for shallow water missile offensive and defensive operations, primarily against China and Iran. On radar it is a baby dolphin.


This is the Navy we are developing. This baby combines the firepower of a squadron of the present destroyer fleet of three digit vessels (DDG 123 for example) and then some. Radically new weaponry and technology connected to satellite weaponry. Zumwalt is the first of the the radically new USN DDG 1000 (destroyer) class.

Construction alone began in 2008 and USN formally accepted the Zumwalt in May (2016). Commissioned it last month.

What's Trump thinking? He's not.

Admiral Elmo Zumwalt was jumped over 13 senior admirals by Prez Nixon to be the youngest Chief of Naval Operations to redesign and recreate the USN. This is the ongoing new USN beast and it is a killer machine.

Trump in contrast wants a big big fleet because it would be really really great believe me to have the biggest and the bestest whopping fleet of navy ships in the whole big wide world, wouldn't it. The very super biggest. We're going to win (and spend) so much we're going to get tired of winning (and spending).
 
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