Ahem, On the Non PC General

[Annie]

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/39390.htm

February 6, 2005 -- IN San Diego on Tuesday, I had the privilege of sitting beside Lt.-Gen. Jim Mattis, a Marine who knows how to fight. We were on a panel discussing future war. And Gen. Mattis, a Marine to the marrow of his bones, spoke honestly about the thrill of combat.

Mattis has commanded at every level. In Desert Storm, he led a battalion. In Afghanistan and then in Iraq, he led with inspiration and courage. Everyone on our panel had opinions about war, but that no-nonsense Marine knew more about it than the rest of us combined.

In the course of a blunt discussion of how our military has to prepare for future fights, the general spoke with a frankness that won the hearts of the uniformed members of the audience. Instead of trotting out politically correct clichés, Mattis told the truth:

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil . . . it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

The language wasn't elegant. But we don't need prissy military leaders. We need generals who talk straight and shoot straight, men who inspire. And I guarantee you that any real Marine or soldier would follow Gen. Mattis.

What was the media's reaction? A B-team news crew saw a chance to grab a headline at the military's expense (surprise, surprise). Lifting the general's remarks out of context, the media hyenas played it as if they were shocked to learn that people die in war.

Combat veterans are supposed to be tormented souls, you understand. Those who fight our wars are supposed to return home irreparably damaged.

HOLLYWOOD'S ideal of a Marine is the retired colonel in the film "American Beauty," who turns out to be a repressed homosexual and a murderer. Veterans are supposed to writhe on their beds all night, covered in sweat, unable to escape their nightmares.

War does scar some men. Most vets, though, just get on with their lives — scratch a veteran looking for pity and more often than not you'll find a supply clerk who never got near a battlefield. And some who serve — the soldiers and Marines who win our wars — run to the sound of the guns, anxious to close with the enemy and kill him. They may not love war itself, but they find combat magnetic and exhilarating. They like to fight.

That's fine in movies featuring Brad Pitt as a mythical Greek hero. But God forbid that a modern-day Marine should admit that he loves his work.

Well, Marines and soldiers don't serve full careers because they hate their jobs. In peace or war, the military experience is incredibly rich and rewarding. And sometimes dangerous. Goes with the territory. But for most of the young infantrymen in Iraq, their combat experience will remain the highpoint of their lives. Nothing afterward will be as intense or exciting. And they will never make closer friends than they did in their rifle squad.

Gen. Mattis may have been unusual in his honesty, but he certainly isn't unusual in our history. We picture Robert E. Lee as a saintly father figure, but Lee remarked that it's good that war is so terrible, since otherwise men would grow to love it too much. He was speaking of himself. Andy Jackson certainly loved a fight, and Stonewall Jackson never shied from one. Sherman and Grant only found themselves in war.

WE lionize those who em braced war in the past, but condemn those who defend us in the present. George S. Patton was far blunter than Jim Mattis — but Patton lived in the days before the media was omnipresent and biased against our military.

The hypocrisy is stunning. Gen. Mattis told the truth about a fundamental human activity — war — and was treated as though he had dropped a nuclear weapon on an orphanage. Yet when some bozo on a talk show confesses to an addiction or a perversion in front of millions of viewers, he's lionized as "courageous" for speaking out.

Sorry. It's men like Jim Mattis who are courageous. The rest of us barely glimpse the meaning of the word.

We've come to a sad state when a Marine who has risked his life repeatedly to keep our country safe can't speak his mind, while any professor who wants to blame America for 9/11 is defended by legions of free-speech advocates. If a man like Mattis hasn't earned the right to say what he really believes, who has?

Had Gen. Mattis collapsed in tears and begged for pity for the torments war inflicted on him, the media would have adored him. Instead, he spoke as Marines and soldiers do in the headquarters tent or the barracks, on the battlefield or among comrades. And young journalists who never faced anything more dangerous than a drunken night in Tijuana tried to create a scandal.

FORTUNATELY, Lt.-Gen. Mattis has three big things going for him: The respect of those who serve; the Marine Corps, which won't abandon a valiant fighter to please self-righteous pundits whose only battle is with their waistlines; and the fact that we're at war. We need more men like Mattis, not fewer. The public needs to hear the truth about war, not just the crybaby nonsense of those who never deigned to serve our country.

In my own far humbler career, the leaders I admired were those who had the killer instinct. The soldiers knew who they were. We would have followed them anywhere. They weren't slick Pentagon staffers anxious to go to work for defense contractors. They were the men who lived and breathed the warrior's life.

Table manners don't win wars. Winning our nation's battles demands disciplined ferocity, raw physical courage — and integrity. Jim Mattis has those qualities in spades.

Semper fi, General.

Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer and the author of "Beyond Baghdad: Postmodern War and Peace."

 

[Johnney]

Gen Mattis rules

 

[Merlin1047]

-scratch a veteran looking for pity and more often than not you'll find a supply clerk who never got near a battlefield.

LOL - you suppose the author came to that conclusion after meeting a character like archangel?

 

[Hobbit]

I wanna see this guy at a press conference. He'd be like the guy who ran the Panama campaign. Sometimes, the reporter would ask a question and he'd just say, "That's question's asinine. Next question?"

 

[CSM]

The General is correct...I dont want some PC, kinder, gentler soul fighting...I want those guys (and gals) who are not afraid to get in a knock down, snot slinging, rolling in the mud brawl and not afraid to win it. We can all afford to be PC, kinder and gentler AFTER we have won. If you do that before you win....you are just European.

 

[Johnney]

The General is correct...I dont want some PC, kinder, gentler soul fighting...I want those guys (and gals) who are not afraid to get in a knock down, snot slinging, rolling in the mud brawl and not afraid to win it. We can all afford to be PC, kinder and gentler AFTER we have won. If you do that before you win....you are just European.

exactly what we need. PC isnt worth a fuck on the battle field. they need that back in the rear

 

[pegwinn]

I briefly met General Mattis when he was a one star as 1stMarDivs CG. Buddy of mine was a new minted WO and we were at his wetdown. The General showed up to shake hands and congratulate all concerned. He stuck around and everyone had a good time.

God I hate retirement..........


April 06, 2003
Close With And Destroy the Enemy

The mission of the marine rifle squad is to locate, close with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver -- or to repel the enemy's assault by fire and close combat.

As a Marine things are drilled into you -- so that you don't think, you just act. It's called muscle memory and is practiced in numerous "immediate action" drills.

Right now my fellow Marines are engaged in close combat with Islamic fundamentalists in a swamp outside of Baghdad. By close combat, I mean they are killing the enemy with knives, bayonets and e-tools (the little fold up metal shovels that they use to dig fighting holes) and their hands if necessary.

More Motivation

 

[KarlMarx]

You know what kills me? This guy is doing a job where he and his colleagues don't know if they are going to live to see quitting time. So the way they deal with it is with this bravado.... if they didn't do that, they probably would go nuts.

The same thing with the mud wrestling incident. If those women did that sort of thing on their own without anyone getting hurt, then hey cut them some slack. They're trying to let off some steam, forget their problems and stay sane. I think that those of us who are benefitting from their sacrifice aren't in much of any position (if any) to judge them.

I think that both of these incidents are much ado about nothing and just another attempt ny the MSM and the liberal know-it-alls to undermine the morale of our fighting men and women. To those Park Avenue liberals and Hollywood Hitler Youth that have a problem with the military, let them answer this question.....

When was the last time they did something that brought freedom, hope for a better future and a higher standard of living to 50 million people?

(Silence)

Yeah I thought so..... well, if they can't do better, then they shouldn't be taking pot shots at America's finest!!!!

 

[theim]

You know what kills me? This guy is doing a job where he and his colleagues don't know if they are going to live to see quitting time. So the way they deal with it is with this bravado.... if they didn't do that, they probably would go nuts.

The same thing with the mud wrestling incident. If those women did that sort of thing on their own without anyone getting hurt, then hey cut them some slack. They're trying to let off some steam, forget their problems and stay sane. I think that those of us who are benefitting from their sacrifice aren't in much of any position (if any) to judge them.

I think that both of these incidents are much ado about nothing and just another attempt ny the MSM and the liberal know-it-alls to undermine the morale of our fighting men and women. To those Park Avenue liberals and Hollywood Hitler Youth that have a problem with the military, let them answer this question.....

When was the last time they did something that brought freedom, hope for a better future and a higher standard of living to 50 million people?

(Silence)

Yeah I thought so..... well, if they can't do better, then they shouldn't be taking pot shots at America's finest!!!!

Now that's not fair Karl. They surely give money to dictators all the time, which will of course go to feed the starving children. Plus when all those poor people see Sean Penn in Mystic River, their stomachs suddenly fill up and all diseases vanish away.

 

[CSM]

You know what kills me? This guy is doing a job where he and his colleagues don't know if they are going to live to see quitting time. So the way they deal with it is with this bravado.... if they didn't do that, they probably would go nuts.

The same thing with the mud wrestling incident. If those women did that sort of thing on their own without anyone getting hurt, then hey cut them some slack. They're trying to let off some steam, forget their problems and stay sane. I think that those of us who are benefitting from their sacrifice aren't in much of any position (if any) to judge them.

I think that both of these incidents are much ado about nothing and just another attempt ny the MSM and the liberal know-it-alls to undermine the morale of our fighting men and women. To those Park Avenue liberals and Hollywood Hitler Youth that have a problem with the military, let them answer this question.....

When was the last time they did something that brought freedom, hope for a better future and a higher standard of living to 50 million people?

(Silence)

Yeah I thought so..... well, if they can't do better, then they shouldn't be taking pot shots at America's finest!!!!

The day that the talking heads get together and get off their collective arses and actually go DO something besides sit in their nice comfy little world and criticize is the day hell will freeze over. Hell will never freeze over if that is the only criteria!

 

[Johnney]

You know what kills me? This guy is doing a job where he and his colleagues don't know if they are going to live to see quitting time. So the way they deal with it is with this bravado.... if they didn't do that, they probably would go nuts.

The same thing with the mud wrestling incident. If those women did that sort of thing on their own without anyone getting hurt, then hey cut them some slack. They're trying to let off some steam, forget their problems and stay sane. I think that those of us who are benefitting from their sacrifice aren't in much of any position (if any) to judge them.

I think that both of these incidents are much ado about nothing and just another attempt ny the MSM and the liberal know-it-alls to undermine the morale of our fighting men and women. To those Park Avenue liberals and Hollywood Hitler Youth that have a problem with the military, let them answer this question.....

When was the last time they did something that brought freedom, hope for a better future and a higher standard of living to 50 million people?

(Silence)

Yeah I thought so..... well, if they can't do better, then they shouldn't be taking pot shots at America's finest!!!!

 

[Annie]

I was just getting ready to turn off and found this on other generals. Lots of pics and quotes, an excerpt will not do it justice:

http://varifrank.com/archives/2005/02/what_would_you.php

 

[CSM]

I was just getting ready to turn off and found this on other generals. Lots of pics and quotes, an excerpt will not do it justice:

http://varifrank.com/archives/2005/02/what_would_you.php

Awesome article!

 

[Johnney]

I was just getting ready to turn off and found this on other generals. Lots of pics and quotes, an excerpt will not do it justice:

http://varifrank.com/archives/2005/02/what_would_you.php

General Curtis Lemay - Strategic Air Command

"You've got to kill people, and when you've killed enough they stop fighting."

now that sums it up i think...lol

 

[Annie]

Just got one of my subscription sites, had the following piece on the Lt. General:

http://ashbrook.org/publicat/oped/owens/05/mattis.html

[...] Of course his, comments also evoked criticism from many of the usual suspects. For instance the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on the Pentagon to discipline Gen. Mattis for the remarks. CAIR’s council’s executive director, Nihad Awad said, "We do not need generals who treat the grim business of war as a sporting event. These disturbing remarks are indicative of an apparent indifference to the value of human life."

Knowing Gen. Mattis’s record, I disagree with such characterizations—but that’s because I know his record. Unfortunately, the thrust of the criticism by CAIR and others is, alas, correct. The context of the comments makes clear that Gen. Mattis was having some fun and playing to his audience. My criticism of Gen. Mattis is that he forgot that he wasn’t trying to inspire his Marines but was instead addressing a civilian group with press present. We wouldn’t want the ladies of the press getting a case of the vapors, now, would we? In addition, anyone who doesn’t know Gen. Mattis’s record, or who doesn’t care about it, can use his comments to paint the Marines as, in the infamous characterization of an assistant secretary of the Army during the Clinton administration, "extremists" out of step with liberal society.

But those who would use Gen. Mattis’s words to defame him or—most especially—the Marine Corps owe it to themselves to examine his record as a combat leader in Afghanistan, where he served as a commander of the Naval Task Force that seized an advanced airbase at the opening of that campaign; and Iraq, where he commanded the storied 1st Marine Division during the march up to Baghdad. The fact is that Gen. Mattis is probably the finest Marine combat leader since the legendary Chesty Puller. I have never met a Marine who served with Gen. Mattis who had anything less than the highest regard for him. Anyone who has seen him knows he doesn’t "look" like a Marine but he sure knows how to act like one. And acting like a Marine makes room for such principles of restraint in war as chivalry (defend the weak and the innocent) and proportionality (use only the force necessary to achieve the objective). For the most part, observers agree that the Marines of Gen. Mattis’s division treated surrendering Iraqi humanely—the way they are supposed to be treated.

Here is the "message to all hands" that then-Major General Mattis issued to his troops as they prepared to enter Iraq in March 2003:

For decades, Saddam Hussein has tortured, imprisoned, raped and murdered the Iraqi people; invaded neighboring countries without provocation; and threatened the world with weapons of mass destruction. The time has come to end his reign of terror. On your young shoulders rest the hopes of mankind.
When I give you the word, together we will cross the Line of Departure, close with those forces that choose to fight, and destroy them. Our fight is not with the Iraqi people, nor is it with members of the Iraqi army who choose to surrender. While we will move swiftly and aggressively against those who resist, we will treat all others with decency, demonstrating chivalry and soldierly compassion for people who have endured a lifetime under Saddam’s oppression. Chemical attacks, treachery, and the use of the innocent as human shields can be expected, as can unethical tactics. Take it all in stride. Be the hunter, not the hunted: never allow your unit to be caught with its guard down. Use good judgment and act in the best interest of our Nation. "You are part of the world’s most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon. Share your courage with each other as we enter the uncertain terrain north of the Line of Departure. Keep faith with your comrades on your left and right and Marine Air overhead. Fight with a happy heart and strong spirit.

For the mission’s sake, our country’s sake, and the sake of the men who carried the Division’s colors in past battles—who fought for life and never lost their nerve—carry out you mission and keep your honor clean. Demonstrate to the world that there is ’No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy’ than a U.S. Marine.

J.N. Mattis

Major General, US Marines

Commanding

Note the admonition to "engage your brain before you engage your weapon." This is not the instruction of a man who looks forward to indiscriminate killing. For the most part, his young Marines responded admirably, despite the likelihood that the enemy would take advantage of the Marines’ restraint.

But what does one make of his charge to "fight with a happy heart?" Doesn’t this suggest, as CAIR claims, that Gen. Mattis and his Marines see the "grim business of war as a sporting event?" In fact, Gen. Mattis was seeking to stir the martial soul of his Marines by invoking the spirit of the St. Crispin’s Day speech that Shakespeare’s King Henry delivers to his soldiers before the battle of Agincourt:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
And like Henry V, Gen. Mattis always led from the front. During the march up to Baghdad, Mattis had prepared his command well and it responded to his style of leadership.

There is something about Gen. Mattis’s remarks that most commentators have missed. He was not saying it is "a hoot" to kill everyone, but those kinds of people who, as they say in Texas, "needed killin’." Ask yourself this question: If you came face to face with Osama bin Laden or Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, you might smile as you put a round though his head? Be honest. I would.

The Marines that Gen. Mattis led on the road to Baghdad made the sort of distinctions that their commanding general directed them to make. They encountered Iraqi soldiers of all kinds: soldiers of regular units, some of whom fought and some of whom didn’t; militia, who preferred not to fight but sometimes did because they were intimidated by Saddam’s fedayeen; and foreign jihadis.

The jihadis asked no quarter and the Marines gave them none.

According to The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division by "Bing" West and Major General Ray "E-tool" Smith, USMC (ret),

The Marines knew the difference between these jihad fighters and the militia. Consequently the Marines shot them in the ditches and in the field. They threw grenades into the bulrushes and shot the fighters when they ran out. They threw grenades into the drainage pipes running under the road… A few of the foreign fighters surrendered, but most did not—they had come to Iraq to die, and die they would. As one Marine put it, this was the perfect war. "They want to die, and we want to kill them."
This is a distinction we once made without compunction: between those who are entitled to the rights of legitimate combatants and those who are not. This distinction was first made by the Romans and subsequently incorporated into international law by way of medieval European jurisprudence. As the eminent military historian, Sir Michael Howard, wrote right after 9/11, the Romans distinguished between bellum, war against legitimus hostis, a legitimate enemy, and Guerra, war against latrunculi—pirates, robbers, brigands, and outlaws—"the common enemies of mankind."

The former, bellum, became the standard for interstate conflict. It is here for instance that the Geneva Conventions were meant to apply. They do not apply to the latter, Guerra—indeed, punishment for latrunculi traditionally has been summary execution. While not employing the term, many legal experts agree that al Qaeda fighters are latrunculi—hardly distinguishable by their actions from pirates and the like. Who knows what some silly judge might rule in the future, but at least so far, no terrorist organization has been deemed a combatant under the laws of armed conflict.

In retrospect, Gen. Mattis’s publicized comments were imprudent. But in his soldier’s way, he was making a necessary distinction that many in the press or the courts are not, e.g. those who hold that terrorist detainees are entitled to prisoner-of-war status and the rights put forth in the Geneva Conventions. Nonetheless, we must acknowledge that Gen. Mattis committed a "gaffe"—he blurted out something of the truth.

Mackubin T. Owens is an associate dean of academics and professor of national-security affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. and an Adjunct Fellow of the Ashbrook Center. He led a Marine rifle platoon in Vietnam in 1968-69.