They hate him because he didn’t listen to their “advice”. He refused to overthrow Assad and plunge us into more wars.
You are badly informed. Actually as Trump’s first Secretary of Defense it fell to Mattis to convince Trump the U.S. should
not try to assassinate Assad.
“
America First” was just a slogan for Trump. His policy was basically to ally with dictators everywhere and butchers like the Saudi Crown Prince MbS in the Persian Gulf. It was everywhere self-defeating. On the other side, more sophisticated men like Biden and Mattis and CIA types have always believed in the ...
“American Empire First.”
I wrote this on General Mattis & Trump earlier:
SassyIrishLass said:
I can't believe Mad Dog Mattis went all puppy
Then DON’T believe this nonsense.
What NOBODY should believe is the childish simplifications one reads ... in most USMB comments.
Trump liked the nickname “Mad Dog Mattis” and met him for a little chat before appointing him Defense Secretary in 2016. Mattis had a reputation as a fine Marine military man, in Trump’s words “A True General’s General.” He was also in fact a highly experienced military administrator, but was known to Trump above all as somebody the Obama Administration had not trusted because of what it felt were his too aggressive militarist inclinations in the Middle East:
As head of Central Command, Mattis oversaw the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and was responsible for a region that includes Syria, Iran, and Yemen. He lobbied the Obama administration for a more aggressive response to Iran, including more covert operations and disruption of Iranian arms shipments to Syria and Yemen. According to
Leon Panetta, the Obama Administration did not place much trust in Mattis because he was perceived as too eager for a military confrontation with Iran. Panetta later said Mattis lacked "the maturity to look at all of the options that a president should look at in order to make the right decisions.”
Jim Mattis - Wikipedia
Yet Mattis was no toady to the inexperienced and impulsive Trump:
Mattis occasionally voiced his disagreement with certain Trump administration policies such as the withdrawal from the
Iran nuclear deal, withdrawals of troops from Syria and Afghanistan, and ... dissuaded Trump from attempting to assassinate
Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria. On December 20, 2018, after failing to convince Trump to reconsider his decision to withdraw all American troops from Syria, Mattis announced his resignation effective the end of February 2019 ... After Mattis's resignation generated significant media coverage, Trump abruptly accelerated Mattis departure date to January 1, stating that he had essentially fired Mattis. On June 3, 2020 ... Mattis publicly criticized Trump, calling him "the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us."
Jim Mattis - Wikipedia
Mattis is a retired fighting man, a classic leader of soldiers. His patriotism and intelligence are undeniable. But he is not a political leader. Whatever disagreements one may have with him about larger political issues, there is no doubt that as a man and leader he is incomparably superior to that egomaniacal demagogue & tweet-addicted incompetent — our own conman President Donald Trump.
www.businessinsider.com
