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Trump Chooses Gen. Mattis as Secretary of Defense?
Well done, Mr. President-elect. From the Washington Post:
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen retired Marine Gen. James N. Mattis to be secretary of defense, according to people familiar with the decision, nominating a former senior military officer who led operations across the Middle East to run the Pentagon less than four years after he hung up his uniform.
To take the job, Mattis will need Congress to pass new legislation to bypass a federal law stating that defense secretaries must not have been on active duty in the previous seven years. Congress has granted a similar exception just once, when Gen. George C. Marshall was appointed to the job in 1950.
An announcement is likely by early next week, according to the people familiar with the choice.
Mattis, 66, retired as the chief of U.S. Central Command in spring 2013 after serving more than four decades in the Marine Corps. He is known as one of the most influential military leaders of his generation, serving as a strategic thinker while occasionally drawing rebukes for his aggressive talk. Since retiring, he has served as a consultant and as a visiting fellow with the Hoover Institution, a think tank at Stanford University.
What do you think? Is this a good pick by Trump or a great pick by Trump?
UPDATE: Or is it even a pick yet? A tweet from the Trump transition team:
Published in GeneralNo decision has been made yet with regard to Secretary of Defense. #TrumpTransition
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) December 1, 2016
EJ, my son currently works out every Tuesday and Thursday with the local Marine recruiters. The first time he went, he puked. And this was a kid that never puked during football two-a-days in August in Texas! He lifts weights the other 3 days and is starting to run more on his own time.
I’m from Missouri.
As Harry Truman said of his successor,
“He’ll sit here, and he’ll say, ‘Do this! Do that!’ And nothing will happen. Poor Ike—it won’t be a bit like the Army. He’ll find it very frustrating.”
Not saying he can’t succeed, only wondering. The job is SecDef, not commander of the armed forces.
It’s been over a half-century since I served. Here is what I think I was seeing over the last eight years: a general purge of military and naval officers 100% dedicated to the success of operations in defense of the United States in favor of officers who break when political winds blow too hard for comfort. I could hardly believe the stories fed to the public after the Benghazi debacle and the intimidation of any who might have told a different version. There will be a big job to rebuild the armed services with the kinds of officers needed and General Mattis, I think, is the right man for the task.
This pick makes me want to dust off my old uniform, lose
25a couple of pounds, and get back on board a submarine as Officer of the Deck.Man-o-man, what a choice . . .
Like this. Made me laugh.