And just like that, the haters became huge fans of a representative of the military industrial complex.
Gene363 wrote:
He said what he thinks. He was on the inside. The credibility one gives him is a personal choice. Why do you believe he is biased or untruthful?
Jim Mattis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Civilian career...
Mattis in 2016After retiring from the military, Mattis worked for FWA Consultants and served as a member of the General Dynamics Board of Directors.[73] Between 2013 and 2017, while on the board of General Dynamics, Mattis made more than $900,000 in compensation, including company stock.[75] In August 2013, he was appointed an Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution[76] and in 2016 he was named the Davies Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow.[77]
In December 2015, Mattis joined the advisory board[78] of Spirit of America, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides assistance to support the safety and success of American service personnel and the local people they seek to help.
He is co-editor of the book Warriors & Citizens: American Views of Our Military, published in August 2016.[79]
From 2013 to January 2017, Mattis was a board member of Theranos, a health technology company that claimed to have devised revolutionary blood tests using very small amounts of blood.[80][81][82][83] Previously, in mid-2012, a Department of Defense official evaluating Theranos's blood-testing technology for the military initiated a formal inquiry with the Food and Drug Administration about the company's intent to distribute its tests without FDA clearance. In August 2012 Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes asked Mattis, who had expressed interest in testing Theranos's technology in combat areas, to help. Within hours, Mattis forwarded his email exchange with Holmes to military officials, asking "how do we overcome this new obstacle". In July 2013 the Department of Defense gave Mattis permission to join Theranos's board provided he did not represent Theranos with regard to the blood-testing device and its potential acquisition by the Departments of the Navy or Defense.[84]
In 2019, Mattis's book Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead was published.[85] It is an autobiography as well as an argument in favor of an internationalist foreign policy.[86] On August 7, 2019, Mattis was re-elected to the board of General Dynamics.[87]
Secretary of Defense (2017–2019)
Nomination and confirmation
Mattis with President Trump and Vice President Pence
Then-president-elect Donald Trump met with Mattis for a little over one hour in Bedminster, New Jersey, on November 20, 2016.[88] He later wrote on Twitter, "General James 'Mad Dog' Mattis, who is being considered for secretary of defense, was very impressive yesterday. A true General's General!"[89] On December 1, 2016, Trump announced at a rally in Cincinnati that he would nominate Mattis for secretary of defense.[90]
As Mattis retired from the military in 2013, his nomination required a waiver of the National Security Act of 1947, which requires a seven-year waiting period before retired military personnel can assume the role of secretary of defense.[90] Mattis was the second secretary of defense to receive such a waiver, following George Marshall.[90] The waiver for Mattis passed 81–17 in the Senate, and 268–151 in the House. Mattis was subsequently confirmed as secretary of defense by a vote of 98–1 in the United States Senate on January 20, 2017.[91] Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was the sole "no" vote,[92] stating that she was opposed to the waiver on principle.[93]
Tenure
Mattis and Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli at NATO headquarters in Brussels, February 2018
In a January 2017 phone call with Saudi Arabia's deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, Mattis "reaffirmed the importance of the US–Saudi Arabia strategic relationship".[94]
For his first official trip abroad, Mattis began a two-day visit with longtime US ally South Korea on February 2, 2017.[5] He warned North Korea that "any attack on the United States, or our allies, will be defeated", and any use of nuclear weapons would be met with an "effective and overwhelming" response from the United States.[6] During a press conference in London on March 31, 2017, with his UK counterpart Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon, Mattis said North Korea was behaving "in a very reckless manner" and must be stopped.[95] During a Pentagon news conference on May 26, Mattis reported the US was working with the UN, China, Japan, and South Korea to avoid "a military solution" with North Korea.[96] On June 3 Mattis said the United States regarded North Korea as "clear and present danger" during a speech at the international security conference in Singapore.[97] In a June 12 written statement to the House Armed Services Committee Mattis said North Korea was the "most urgent and dangerous threat to peace and security".[98] On June 15 Mattis said the US would win a war against North Korea, but "at great cost".[99]
On March 22, 2017, during questioning from the US Senate, Mattis affirmed his support for US troops remaining in Iraq after the Battle of Mosul was concluded.💯 Mattis responded to critics who suggested the Trump administration had loosened the rules of engagement for the US military in Iraq after US-led coalition airstrikes in Mosul killed civilians,[101] saying, "We go out of our way to always do everything humanly possible to reduce the loss of life or injury among innocent people."[102] According to Airwars, the US-led coalition killed as many as 6,000 civilians in Iraq and Syria in 2017.[103]
Mattis and Marise Payne inspecting the Australia's Federation Guard in Sydney.
On April 5, 2017, Mattis called the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack "a heinous act," and said it would be treated accordingly.[104] On April 10 Mattis warned the Syrian government against using chemical weapons again.[105] The following day, Mattis gave his first Pentagon news conference since becoming secretary of defense, saying ISIL's defeat remained "our priority," and the Syrian government would pay a "very, very stiff price" for further usage of chemical weapons.[106] On April 21 Mattis said Syria still had chemical weapons and was in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.[107] According to investigative journalist Bob Woodward, Trump ordered Mattis to assassinate Assad, but Mattis refused.[108] On May 8 Mattis told reporters details of the proposed Syrian safe zones were "all in process right now" and the United States was involved with configuring them.[109]
Mattis voiced support for a Saudi Arabian-led military campaign against Yemen's Shiite rebels.[110] He asked Trump to remove restrictions on US military support for Saudi Arabia.[111]
On April 20, 2017, one week after the Nangarhar airstrike, Mattis told reporters that the US would not conduct a damage assessment "in terms of the number of people killed" in Afghanistan.[112] Mattis traveled to Afghanistan days later and met with government officials, explaining that the purpose of the trip was to allow him to state his recommendations for US strategy in the country.[113] On June 13, Mattis said US forces were "not winning" in Afghanistan and the administration would develop a new strategy by "mid-July" while speaking to the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services.[114] On June 27 Mattis told reporters that he was creating a conflict-ending strategy for Afghanistan that would also "remove the danger to the Afghan people and to us and to all the nations that have been attacked by terrorist groups out of that region".[115] On June 29 Mattis said the Obama administration "may have pulled our troops out too rapidly" and that he intended to submit a new Afghanistan strategy to Trump upon his return to Washington, D.C.[116]
The United States has been openly arming the Syrian Kurdish fighters in the war against ISIL since May 2017.[117] Following the start of the Turkish invasion of northern Syria aimed at ousting US-backed Syrian Kurds from the enclave of Afrin, Mattis said in January 2018: "Turkey is a NATO ally. It's the only NATO country with an active insurgency inside its borders. And Turkey has legitimate security concerns."[118] Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ urged the United States to halt its support for Kurdish YPG fighters, saying: "Those who support the terrorist organization will become a target in this battle."[119]
Resignation letter from Secretary James Mattis
In November 2018 the CIA assessed with "high confidence" that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.[120] Under mounting pressure from lawmakers who wanted action against Saudi Arabia, Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a rare closed briefing of the Senate, disputed the CIA's conclusion and declared there was no direct evidence linking the crown prince to Khashoggi's assassination.[121]
On December 19, 2018, Trump announced immediate US withdrawal from Syria, over the objections of his national security advisers.[122] Mattis had recently said that the US would remain in Syria following the defeat of ISIL to ensure they did not regroup. The next day, he submitted his resignation after failing to persuade Trump to reconsider.[123][124] His resignation letter contained language that appeared to criticize Trump's worldview—praising NATO, which Trump has often derided, and the 79-nation Defeat-ISIS coalition that Trump had just decided to abandon. Mattis also affirmed the need for "treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors," and remaining "resolute and unambiguous" against authoritarian states such as China and Russia. He wrote that Trump has "the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with [his] on these and other subjects."[125][126] His resignation triggered alarm among historical allies.[127] Mattis's letter said his resignation would be effective February 28, 2019.[128] Three days later Trump moved Mattis's departure date up to January 1, after becoming angered by the implicit criticism of Trump's worldview in the resignation letter.[129] On January 2, 2019, Trump criticized Mattis's performance as secretary of defense and said he had "essentially fired him."[130]
Post-tenure
After leaving the White House, Mattis initially declined to offer his opinion on the performance of the administration, stating: "If you leave an administration, you owe some silence",[131] however, he since has voiced his opinion of two separate occasions.
Al Smith Dinner comments
At the October 17, 2019 Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Mattis as the keynote speaker responded to comments Trump made about him, saying, "I’m not just an overrated general, I am the greatest, the world’s most overrated ... I’m honored to be considered that by Donald Trump, because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress. So I guess I’m the Meryl Streep of generals, and frankly, that sounds pretty good to me. And you do have to admit that between me and Meryl, at least we've had some victories." He continued, "I've earned my spurs on the battlefield ... Donald Trump earned his spurs in a letter from a doctor."[132][133]
George Floyd protests
See also: George Floyd protests
On June 3, 2020 in a statement to The Atlantic, Mattis criticized Trump's response to the George Floyd protests, noting that Trump is "the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people", while saying that America is "witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership", and concluded by calling for accountability for "those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution."[134][135]
Trump responded by twitter that evening that he "felt great" he had previously asked Mattis to resign, and he didn't like much about Mattis or his "leadership style"... "Glad he is gone!"[136]
Edited by user
6 years ago |
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