Jim Mattis appreciation thread.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

You were a dignified man in an undignified administration. And thank you for trying to push back on Trump's trans ban.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

1. Just...shouldn't...have...done...it...Sir.

Sorry. Uh-rah.

[imanamerican63]

2. But he should have known was a fool!

Especially when Trump was critical about McCain and being captured! Yes Mattis is a descent man, but he threw it all away when he took the job.

[XRubicon]

3. +1 I think drupf knows the shit is about to hit the fan so he is windmill punching like Curley

He has all of a sudden found the need to suck up to his base (that includes putin).

I think all these erratic moves are a tell of things to come.

[wasupaloopa]

4. I worked for a while last year with a woman who spent

30 years in Intelligence in DC. She wrote PDB’s for several Presidents and worked in the West Wing.

She had only good things to say about Mattis.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. When Senator Gillibrand grilled him about trans people in the service he sounded open minded.

[Anon-C]

6. Thank you for actually standing up for America even at the expense of Deripaska's tragic...

...cannon fodder.

Godspeed.

[Karadeniz]

7. Your last hardship tour

Thank you for trying to help trans soldiers, running interference with allies and all you did.It's next to impossible to make sense with someone who's mentally ill. Don't bury yourself, please.

[Raine]

8. A sane voice among the insanity

surrounding him, I'm very sorry to see him go...

[highplainsdem]

9. K&R!

[melman]

10. You mean the "it's fun to shoot people" guy?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/03/general.shoot/

No thanks.

[Polybius]

11. He said "some people", and here's the rest of the quote

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis said. "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

[melman]

12. That's not the full quote

"Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot," he said during the panel discussion. "It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling.

You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."


That's the full quote. and he was officially reprimanded for that btw

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. Shooting is harsh...

Shooting is harsh but what's appropriate the remedy for a woman beateer?

[melman]

14. I don't understand the question

"the remedy for beating somebody up who is presumably weaker than you"

what do you mean?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. A man hitting a woman who is presumably weaker and smaller than him is worthy of outrage

[Polybius]

16. Well he clarified it that it's fun to shoot those who beat a woman for 5 years for lack of a veil

If someone is torturing a woman for 5 years, I don't have sympathy for them when the Marines come for them.

[melman]

18. Look

The Taliban are not nice guys. Obviously.

But he has no way of knowing who is beating who. It's just tough-guy talk.


and this guy is an extreme hawk on Iran. So much so that...




In fact, Mattis’ anti-Iran animus is so intense that it led President Barack Obama to replace him as Centcom commander. It was a move that roiled Mattis admirers, seeding claims that the president didn’t like “independent-minded generals who speak candidly to their civilian leaders.” But Mattis’ Iran antagonism also concerns many of the Pentagon’s most senior officers, who disagree with his assessment and openly worry whether his Iran views are based on a sober analysis or whether he’s simply reflecting a 30-plus-year-old hatred of the Islamic Republic that is unique to his service. It’s a situation that could lead to disagreement within the Pentagon over the next four years—but also, senior Pentagon officials fear, to war.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/james-mattis-iran-secretary-of-defense-214500


There's a tendency to make everyone who goes even slightly against Trump into a hero.

But just because Trump is bad doesn't automatically make this guy great. They can both be bad.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. Mattis defends Iran deal as Trump considers withdrawal

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/385094-mattis-defends-iran-deal-as-trump-considers-withdrawal


He was an island of sanity in a sea of delusion.

[melman]

23. "He was an island of sanity"

Or perhaps not.
_

"Iran is on the mind of nearly every senior Marine I’ve ever come in contact with, including Mattis. It was back in 2012, while he was still in uniform, that Mattis said that the three gravest threats facing the U.S. were “Iran, Iran, Iran.” In the years since his retirement in 2013, he’s been even more outspoken. He repeated his “Iran, Iran, Iran” mantra last April (in addition to an entirely predictable reference to the Beirut barracks bombing) during an appearance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and then explained himself. Iran, he said, is “the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East,” and not really a nation-state at all but “a revolutionary cause devoted to mayhem.”"

Then, Mattis linked Iran to the rise of ISIS. “I consider ISIS nothing more than an excuse for Iran to continue its mischief,” he said. “Iran is not an enemy of ISIS; they have a lot to gain from the turmoil that ISIS creates.” What Mattis said next was eerily reminiscent of George W. Bush’s claim that because Al Qaeda wasn’t attacking Saddam Hussein, the two must be linked: “I would just point out one question for you to look into,” Mattis intoned. “What is the one country in the Middle East that has not been attacked by ISIS? One. That is Iran. That is more than happenstance, I’m sure.”

Or maybe not. Mattis’ ISIS-is-Iran claim is breathtakingly short on facts. The Iranians are arming Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, who are fighting ISIS in Mosul, and Tehran has made little secret of its opposition to the Sunni terrorist group. Back in July, Iranian television said its government had uncovered an ISIS plot to set off bombs in Tehran, leading to the arrest of 10 terrorist operatives. “The U.S. has lots of disagreements with Iran,” a senior Pentagon civilian official told me on Friday, “but what to do about ISIS isn’t one of them. We want them defeated, and so do they.”

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/james-mattis-iran-secretary-of-defense-214500

[Hekate]

17. Thank you for your service sir....

[WarWhatIsItGoodFor]

19. No, just hell no

Mattis is a warmonger who willingly served in Trump’s administration.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

21. Please see post twenty

Thank you in advance.

[ooky]

22. I think he should have stayed instead of go because

we have a dangerous situation by leaving an ignorant, out of control narrcissistic dictator in our White House with nobody to counter his ignorant actions. I'm glad he is still there until February and hope somehow Trump is removed before then. The best thing that could happen to the country and the world right now is Trump suddenly drop dead from the grease in his cheeseburgers and KFC.