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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn 2014, Mattis Said What Would Make Him Resign In Protest. In 2018, He Actually Did It
https://taskandpurpose.com/mattis-resign-protest/I think people were pretty much aware that the US military didnt think it was a very wise idea, he said in 2015, before being named Defense Secretary. But we give a cheery Aye aye, Sir. Because when you elect someone commander in chief we give our advice. We generally give it in private.
Mattis, like many other generals before the war, offered his advice to then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the problems of going into Iraq. This frank advice is expected of high-ranking military officers, but ultimately its up to the civilian leadership to make the decision.
Still, seven retired generals eventually came out publicly against Rumsfeld in 2007 in what was dubbed the generals revolt. Mattis, still on active duty at the time, was not among them.
Later, during his April 2014 talk in San Francisco, he was asked specifically about whether there was a scenario in which he may have retired in protest. Mattis allowed some unethical orders and other scenarios that would lead him to do so, but he said, you have to be very careful about doing that. The lance corporals cant retire. Theyre going. Thats all there is to it.
He added: You abandon him only under the most dire circumstances, where the message you have to send can be sent no other way. I never confronted that situation.
In Dec. 2018, it looks like he finally did.
blue-wave
(4,353 posts)and we are stuck with this shit show of an administration (using the term loosely). The closer Mueller gets, the more tRump undermines our country. Every American citizen who still supports tRump, it's all on you now. It's time for the rest of us to demand he step down from office.
EarnestPutz
(2,120 posts)They are not going to war, but coming home from a war.
But they still get Mattis's message loud and clear. A leader we respect
thinks this is wrong, that we are abandoning allies that we have
made a commitment to, and our Commander -in-Chief is playing
politics with us,
Cha
(297,240 posts)RestoreAmerica2020
(3,435 posts)....all hell breaks out!
Cha
(297,240 posts)Yeah.. what fresh hell is this?
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)Mattis finally found his. I disagreed with him about almost everything, but he was the only remaining adult in the room.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,346 posts)Are all the remaining ones sycophants?