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

The bags under his eyes look like nut sacs.

Leaving the remaining Christians to the tender mercies of the Russians and Turkey especially Turkey just wiped them out! But I guess that is the price to be paid if you don't go all out to win
as the previous President did. Cheers NC

Anybody that achieved a high rank throughout the Bush and Obama years probably believes in what Bush and Obama considered "sound policy."

It was inevitable.

How many times do we have to hear this bullschit and still believe it?

It's either important, or it ain't.

There is no vacuum in Syria. Putin will continue to prop up Assad. Assad will rule where he can with an iron fist.

ISIS is basically finished, we don't dare to move on Assad because of Putin (even if removal of Assad was still a goal - it's not today).

WTF are we doing there? Stabilizing what? Keeping the Kurds happy? Who are the Kurds in all this? (Gus question)

Answer this: With no defined goal, how long do we stay and waste money? Been in Afghanistan 16-17 years by now and have accomplished just what in the last dozen? If the Taliban is going retake that country, does it matter if they do it 2019 or 2029? Afghanis will either fight them or bow down to them. All we can do is delay that end.

With fracking, very soon we will not need a drop of ME oil. What are we doing there at this point except dicking around?

Pulling out may have unpleasant consequences but staying most certainly does.


So how long is long enough?

Exactly.

And if we truly need oil there's plenty just south of us and plenty in lots of easily taken places. So fugkin' take or STFU.

So, whers the love, hatari, for the deep state coffiers who owns the military industrial complex McLame and Bush loved so much?

Trump's got a big ego. Mattis' got a big ego.

One of them had to go.

General Mattis, I think you for your outstanding service.

Fighting a perpetual war without a defined strategy for victory is naive at best and foolish or outright deceptive at worst. The US has not fought an offensive war with the intention of winning since WW II, and even then we gave too much consideration to our so-called allies who actually deserve to be speaking German today. We've been sucking at the political and strategic side of warfare since Korea and we still can't seem to figure it out.

If it's not worth pursuing a scorched earth policy of warfare, then it's not a good enough reason to send our troops and resources in and put them at risk.

The only way to keep Iran, and Saudi and Russia and Turkey out of Syria is to stay there. Forever.

There used to be a compelling reason for the US to dedicate two or three carrier groups to the Middle East --- oil. Now that we have good access to our own crude, the people that need the oil (the rest of the world) can start paying the insurance premium for the oil to keep flowing.......

I don't think Mattis was ever comfortable in Trump's administration.

They had their day in the sun, and accomplished what?

At one time, I thought going into Iraq would work out I thought the Iraqis were well enough educated, well enough culturally advance, and sufficiently supressed by the Sadaam regieme that they would embrace a Western style democracy and flourish. Wrong! Only country in the Middle East that has proven they can come close to doing it is Israel.

No need these days to protect vital oil interests for the stability of the economy of the world. Frack the scheit out of oil here, and we'll export it at a healthy price. Screw Achmend, Mohammed, and the asorted towel heads.

Any man that old with sleeve tattoos is over the top....

So when do you expect Trump to announce an abrupt exit from the 17 yrs in Afghanistan?...

Trump increased US troops in Afghanistan from 10,000 to 15,000 but no word of when they be coming home.

5000+ US troops currently in Iraq, when is Trump bringing them home?

US withdrawal from Syria will involve around 2000 specialised troops...but that is not to say that clandestine
OPs involving US troops will cease.



The Kurds are responsible for most of the success against islamic state.
Kurds are also the people that the US signed an agreement to take away and deny them a country of their own,
the Trump admin continues a foreign policy of a united Iraq at the expense of the Kurds.

Turkey, Syria , Iraq and Iran have lands that once belonged to the Kurds, and successive US admins are in agrreement
with those nations to keep it that way.



The muslim Kurds were and still are instrumental in providing many christians protection and safe haven.

But Trump recently got off the phone with Erdogan- and agreed to clear the space of US troops so Turkey can
take decisive hard ball action against the Kurds.



The vital combined world commerce/trade that goes through the middle east shipping lanes is enormous,
.. oil is but a fraction of that...the US objective is to keep shipping lanes out of Iranian/Russian control, hence why Trump
[ like several previous presidents] supports the September 11 conspirator wahhabi terrorist Saudis so much.

despite Trumps talk of bringing back jobs to USA, Ivanka Trump still has her products made in China with an army of Chinese workers
and the containers of designer label junk shipped across the oceans, so I'm sure daddy will continue to look after her interests.

63 million AMERICANS elected Trump not Mattis.

If Mattis won't do the job WE THE PEOPLE hired Trump to get done then its time to go.

Thanl you for your service, enjoy your extremely high level of living in retirement from all the money you'll make on your book and speaking tours.

In a lot of ways, I can empathize with Mattis. I grew up with father that was a bit Trumpish. He was self-made. He was constantly dealing and winning and he did it solely by the seat of his pants. I was a rational loyal dedicated type of son. Much of what went on in my Dad's head was inexplicable, especially to my Dad. He just had a nose for successful outcomes.

He was prone to pivoting on the spur of the moment. It came from having a very active mind that was constantly weighing a vast array of options. He talked in a shorthand of his own making and seldom completed sentences unless he was really, really concentrating on you. I remember one interaction on a Sunday afternoon.

"I suppose if we went first thing tomorrow. . . " he said.

That was out of nowhere. I knew instinctively what he meant. It came from there being a Liberty Tire ad in the Sunday Enquirer that had cheap snow tires on sale. It came from a short discussion we'd had a couple months ago about snow tires. I had the day off on Monday, and he was offering to go with me to Liberty Tire so that I could put new snow tires on my car.

I mentioned this interaction to my mother later, marveling that I'd been able to pick up on his line of thinking. "I have to be damn near telepathic with the man," she replied. "That's just to figure out what he wants for dinner."

You had to be quick-witted with my father, otherwise he'd clam up on you. If you agreed with him on something, he might pivot on your agreement and go the other way. If you disagreed with him, he might dig his heels in. It was better just to nod and let his brain work it out. He never took notes, unless it was a phone number, but he could remember a conversation from 5 years previous, or the details of building he'd built 2 decades ago. He remembered names of lumber yard workers that he'd last met in his teens. With all that floating around in his head, he was able to model vast amounts of data and weigh his options continuously.

I feel for a guy like Mattis.

He has probably seen more [bleep] and dealt with more [bleep] than you will ever see.
Perhaps this is what caused the bags under his eyes.
How many men have your commanded and been responsible for?
Respect is good.

All Draft Dodgers seem to be ambivalent toward military men. They make use of them when it’s to their advantage but never trust them because the idea of a “ higher loyalty “ is foreign to the Draft Dodger.

Trump wanted” His Generals “ at the start of his administration to give him cover while he was trying to learn about the military.Then he started discarding them. It will be interesting to see if he lets Dunford serve out his term.

So many are saying that Mattis had to leave because he was a "warmonger". Yet, John Bolton is still around and he's much worse.

So the Christians would be better off if Assad would be overthrown?