General Mattis Departure - Symptomatic or Systemic
 

The revolving door of the current administration has another Cabinet position being vacated.

Maybe this one is different... General Mattis is something of a Rock Star when it comes to his credentials as a military commander and seemingly simple, straightforward no-BS approach to things. Aside from warfighter activities, the fact that the DoD conducted it's first EVER financial audit is a very significant accomplishment (yeah..so it failed.. shocker)



The Administrations left-turn on Syria seems to have been the final straw.

Initial story here

There was a comment that popped up somewhere concerning this decision on Syria being an "abandonment of the Kurds". Hate to tell the guy who made that comment that we screwed the Kurds a long time ago....

No joke.

The commentariat will be interesting the next few days. There are plenty on both sides of that coin. Those who never saw a deployment (for someone else's kid) that they didn't like, and those who feel that the well in many respects is dry & the country should take a more insular approach.

Yes, the revolving door and a bit of a soap opera...but...every morning I wake up and still find reason to smile...











...Hillary Klinton is not my president !
:lifter

It seems a simple equation. If you pull out, which is a decision, I disagree with Mr. President, I will resign.

Please note this historic moment.

When was the last time a General resign over a policy decision?

Edit to add: Total respect for General Mattis. Completely worried, if this is in fact the case.

It seems both countries have become bottomless endless money pits...Afghanistan has had new generals with new plans that seem to just check the block on their careers at the cost of soldiers doing the actual fighting lives....Syria became a mess under the Obama Sychophantic and the GS golden parachute Centcom crap.....is it time to pull out now that the anti migrant movement in Europe has found the courage to stand up to the migrant charter? now that Obama is gone and can no longer influence the EU by withholding U.S. Monetary support and a strong POTUS who is a nationalist who knows.... Hard to say I think both conflicts became war for profit ventures and the Centcom now led by Votel the sellout and bullshit intelligence that caused the analyst uprising gives me reason to believe that trusting the honesty of the war profiteering machine has cost enough U.S. lives.....we will see I am certain that no one in the Pentagon is getting ground truth anymore than the POTUS......that is what the last 17 yrs has taught me with all the white washing and the false flag exaggerated intelligence that has been produced going into our 3rd POTUS since this started.....I don't trust the intel anymore than I trust the decision to pull out......I am certain that Mattis believes his Generals in CENTCOM I don't.

Note that the Generals leading today to include Mattis did not resign over Obamas forced SJW female and Transgender integration either.....they're all politicos. The Big business of war is a helluva a lot of power and influence the golden parachutes sucking up money from every contract you can think of living off GWOT money and the retired future having a high paying contracting job or start up is awful powerful since the way was shown during the Bosnia-Herzegovina conflict. Not saying that Mattis was looking at that future but most of these bigger contract companies do hire these connected GO's. The Kurds have been getting fooked since the post Ottoman league of nations designated the lands and left the Kurdish homelands out of the decision.

He has been in office for 2-years, it is time for him to go (normal rotation). Suck-ass job,18-hour days, meetings and travel your ass off, no days off, no vacation, and everyone second guesses your decisions. And people ask, “why does he want to leave?”.

Scotty Miller said that we cannot win the war in Afg. I agree that the GPF cannot win it, it isn’t a conventional war.

I doubt we can win it unconventionally...the US Populace doesn't have the stomach for it.

And it would take everyone, with no gloves or press.

I completely agree. It would also help if the folks doing the "winning" didn't feel the need to video anything or "share" it on social media. It would definitely be a long road.

This is why I voted for Trump, pull out of Syria. The last Commander in Chief, Secretary of State Clinton/Kerry and the Swamp got the U.S. involved there, now Trump will get the U.S. out. The memes and hype around Mattis have been disappointing considering he could have very easily reversed the move of women in combat arms/SOF.

Plan B of breaking up Syria into several states has failed. Good. When both Democrats and Republicans are upset you know we're doing the right thing.

I just finished reading the letter of resignation (minus the one paragraph that’s missing 30%) It leaves me very curious what the Dummycrats are reading, because this looked like a mature letter expressing a minor fundamental disagreement on vision and purpose. Not, I’m going to throw a temper tantrum because you disagreed with me over Syria, China and Russia.

I for one am glad to see this POTUS doesn’t believe in Permanent-War for the sake of involvement without end.

We should have left Afghanistan on December 31, 2001, and utilized our strengths as a world military force and law enforcement champion to defeat al Qaeda, UBL, and the Taliban. And, never strayed into Iraq without a clear plan to ‘not’ break everything and go home. Mattis, just a Brigadier General back then, followed the orders of Rumsfeld and later, Gates, Panetta, Hagen, and Carter after him. I didn’t hear him resign over allowing all the BS that happened under Bush and Obama’s systematic destruction of the military.

I think what he’s saying is it’s time for me to go to the old soldiers home and spend time with my family before it’s too late. I also think he’s playing the get out of Dodge card before the new Congress (House) takes over and runs the rest of this country into the ground before the 2020 elections.

I could be wrong and he’s really pissed because the president was acting presidential and ordered an end to US involvement in a country with little to no strategic or national importance to us after killing another towel head at a cost of $1,000,000,000 per head.

My take on that possibility. I do agree (also having read it) that the actual letter was crafted by someone not throwing the tantrum Rachel MadCow would have you believe.

Sunni coalition to protect the Kurds in Syria? Wonder if it’s true.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20...urds-in-syria/

Saudi Wahabists...? Seems an unlikely union or at least not one that is sustainable (The enemy of my enemy is my friend)

Indeed!

They both fear ISIS factions uprooting their power domestically but they aren’t really helping in Yemen...unless they get a chance to kill Huthis or Iranian advisors.

Interesting article written in 2005 by a former DIRNSA but still germane (IMO) today.

http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index....&askthisid=129