Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Defense Secretary James Mattis' resignation letter

In the business world, it is pretty much expected to see people come and go, but this is not the business world. There has been such a huge turnover rate in the Trump administration, and while some of it was probably a good thing, I can't see that all of it has been.


My thoughts have always been that we should never have gotten as fully involved in the Middle East as we did in the first place. Espicially so in Afghanistan, as history should have taught us that foreign powers have never done well there. I've no real problem in pulling our ground troops out of the Middle East, as I think it was a mistake to send them there in the first place. But, I also believe that Mattis is much better equipped to know the current situation than Trump is.

We were told that Trump was this genius that always surrounded himself with the smartest people on the planet, and that's how he became so successful. But, as president, he doesn't let those people stick around long enough for us to know anything about them. Who knows, maybe that's the plan.

This reminds me of Vietnam in 1967. All the great generals, Maxwell Taylor and his buddies, "The Best and the Brightest," assured us that we just needed a few thousand more troops over there, and a few more months of combat, and we would win!

And that GD Iraq war started by the ninny George Bush Jr and President Cheney. The Generals loved that war, why, we whipped Saddam's ass in just 6 weeks! A great little war!
And without dictator Saddam, who hated Muslim radicals and would not allow them into Iraq, Iraq has become a hotbed for Muslim radicals.
What a disaster.

And now the great Generals tell us that we have to keep fighting in Syria. Give me a break!
What is funny to me, is to see the reaction of the media to withdrawal from this Godforsaken war. In 1969, all major media hated the Vietnam War and always criticized Nixon for not getting us out.
NBC and ABC hated the Iraq War, and they hated Bush Jr. and they wanted us out.

But now that it is Trump who has ended a war, the media thinks it is a terrible idea! Really it is funny watching the media flip flop in their long held beliefs, and anything that Trump does, the media declares it a disaster.

Trump used Mattis to to put together the plan to refit and rebuild the military after nearly 2 decades of continuous deployment and action. Our military has a bunch of worn out equipment from HumVees to aircraft and everything in between. We don't have the material to engage a first class opponent. We will will once again soon.

Trump used Mattis to twist arms in Europe and to bitch slap our "allies" into coughing up there share of NATO expenses.

Those major points have been accomplished and crossed off the list. Mattis did his job. Next thing it appears on Trumps Defense list is to stop dicking around wasting money, energy, resources and people in the ENDLESS tar baby that is the Middle East. Bush 43 proved we can't effectively transplant Western Democracy there.

Obama proved you can destabilize the area rapidly by meddling

Putin has proved that he will back Assad against not only the wishes to remove him by the US, but France and GB wanted him gone too. He's not going anywhere.

Trump would have Iran at the breaking point IF Europe would follow the sanctions 100%. ISIS is 90% done with.

You people PLEASE look at the broader picture for once int your lives. What does all this cheap oil production really mean globally? I'm talking beyond filling up your F-150?

Greater production in the US, which fracking is bringing on strong, increased production by the Saudis has seen oil fall under $50/bbl. A few years ago it was over $100/bbl. Who suffers the most from that? Let me clue you in - Iran and Russia. Yes, Putin suffers because oil is his only money making export and his oil is expensive to produce. The Ayatollahs can only be effectively toppled in a grass roots counter revolution, and the people need to be fed up tot he point where they ALL take to the streets. Bankrupt Iran by cutting their oil money in half, and you get closer to that end every day.

Trumps things to do list

Screw with Putin - check. Keep on fracking. Ship Natural gas to Europe

Screw with Iran - Check. See above. Call Eurowennies and tell them to honor sanctions

Cut Military spending in the Middle East - WTF are doing still there? Bring them home.

Get money for Border Security - Threaten Veto

Fix NAFTA - check. Did it

Turn back Caravan - check. Didn't let the phoucers in. Gave Mexico some cash to sort them out on that side and send them back.

Bump stock ban - Dems will get that anyway sooner or later. Throw them a poorly worded Executive Order and let the courts overturn it. Bump stocks are POS anyway. You can still get a CL III and go legit fully auto.



Sorry to digress - back to Mattis. Sounds like Mattis and Trump disagree. That's fine. Mattis seems to know that 'the Boss is the Boss" and doesn't want to follow the boss in this, so h's going. They are handling it like adults, Trump thanked him for his hard work, time to move on.

In politics, a President comes to Washington with a list of things they want to work on. If any President accomplishes even part of 15-20% of things on that list in his first 2 years, that is major. Congress isn't there to rubber stamp things UNLESS, like in the case of Obama, that the list of things to accomplish COMES FROM Congress (Harry Reid in the case of Obama) and it is the President (Obama) that rubber stamps them.

After the initial run at the agenda, the mission changes. The President usually has gotten everything he can get. Time to redo the mission, and time for new blood to help.

This is the problem................no real continuity or consistency & besides, an image projected that screams "we don't know WTF we are doing" & perception is extremely important.

Poor perception of stability leads to a lot of voters on the fence moving off in the wrong direction..................it's not the core supports, but those that are needed to continue holding office in all pieces of government.

MM

"The president defied the suggestions of his generals on Syria."

How does a president defy a suggestion.

The American people put Trump in power to make these decisions. No one voted for the generals.

Fox News is ate up with the neocon disease.

Trump being president is a gigantic departure from the norm, and a departure voted for by the American people. Naturally, when a president is perceived as being an enemy of the established corrupt powers that be - the deep state - he is going to have instability, because the swamp will then be determined to make instability the norm, and the swamp is deeply entrenched.

Bingo!

And how could Generals offer anything other than suggestions to a CIC?

And I doubt that “ a majority of the American people “ believe that Trump knows more than the Generals about military matters.

Bone spurs...? Yeah I’ll admit that he probably knows more about them than the Generals.

Tweeting..? Yeah..gotta give him that one also.

Well said, and exactly right.

Exactly. Assad is the protector of Christians within his borders. It's the folks the neocons support who are the threat to them.

Should ask the Christians in Iraq and Libya how it worked out for them.

People want strong leadership. Not waffling

YOU can't win elections without. Your strong base

I could care less what Belgium Korea France think of our country. Obama's foreign policy was based what Europe thought of our actions. Europe is falling apart now as a result of breixit and uncontrolled immigration

It's a new world

Yep.

When your enemies are cheering, you made a mistake.....

Who's cheering? Naturally, Syrians would be happy that we've stopped supporting Muslim extremist terrorists within their borders.

Mattis left because Trump was disrupting the status quo,...which is what he was elected to do.

“ A wise man does not discard something of value unless he has something of equal or better value to replace it “.

From Ruarks book, “ Something of value “. According to him it is an old Swahili proverb. But... what do they know?

There's nothing of value in letting the tail wag the dog. That's been America's status quo for quite some time.

Now,..if John Bolton would step down also.

Just about everyone in Washington that is establishment is sweating bullets because Trump has turned the status quo on it's head and is actually getting things done. Longtime politicians are abandoning ship and that is fine although a lot are being replaced with democrats thanks to an anemic public. How easily we forget why we voted him in the first place.

It's not easy to shrink government. It is totally against the mission of government. The entrenched political leftists will fight to the death to undermine his administration. Obama made good on his promise to grow the government. Lots of people are dependent on their government salaries and perks. Mattis is just one of a long list of establishment political wonks that are evacuating. history will judge Trump like his predecessors and I believe it will be kind to him.

The 2020 elections are coming up and it will start all over again. The onslaught of liberal leftist money playing with the election. The illegal votes and the false accusations. Keep the faith and vote your conscience. We have a long way to go.

Mass resignations of numerous officials should be a red flag, but Trumpsters eat whatever the orange man puts on the spoon. "Open up yuge!" He must be draining the swamp. Playing 4D chess.

No, he's a retard and so are his idiot supporters.

Terrifying.