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Title: Send the Mad Dog to the Corporate Kennel
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URL Source: https://original.antiwar.com/mcgove ... d-dog-to-the-corporate-kennel/
Published: Dec 22, 2018
Author: Ray McGovern
Post Date: 2018-12-22 09:02:30 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 92
Comments: 6
Outgoing Defense Secretary Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis was famous for quipping, “It’s fun to shoot some people.” It remains a supreme irony that Mattis was widely considered the only “adult in the room” in the Trump administration. Compared to whom? John Bolton, the rabid neocon serving as national security adviser? That would be the epitome of “condemning with faint praise.” With his ramrod-straight image, not to mention his warrior/scholar reputation extolled in the media, Mattis was able to disguise the reality that he was, as Col. Andrew Bacevich put it on Democracy Now! this morning, “totally unimaginative.” Meaning that Mattis was simply incapable of acknowledging the self-destructive, mindless nature of U.S. “endless war” in the Middle East, which candidate-Trump had correctly called “stupid.” In his resignation letter, Mattis also peddled the usual cant about the indispensable nation’s aggression being good for the world. Mattis was an obstacle to Trump’s desire to pull troops out of Syria and Afghanistan (and remains in position to spike Trump’s orders). Granted, the abrupt way Trump announced his apparently one-man decision was equally stupid. But withdrawal of ground troops is supremely sane, and Mattis was and is a large problem. And, for good or ill, Trump – not Mattis – was elected president. Marine Wisdom Historically, Marines are the last place to turn for sound advice. Marine Gen. Smedley Butler (1881-1940), twice winner of the Medal of Honor, was brutally candid about this, after he paused long enough to realize, and write, “War is a Racket”: “I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher- ups. …” Shortly after another Marine general, former CENTCOM commander Anthony Zinni, retired, he stood by silently as he personally watched then-Vice President Dick Cheney give his most important speech ever (on August 26, 2002). Cheney blatantly lied about Iraq’s (nonexistent) WMD, in order to grease the skids for the war of aggression against Iraq. Zinni had kept his clearances and was “back on contract.” He was well read-in on Iraq, and knew immediately that Cheney was lying. A few years later, Zinni admitted that he decided that his lips would be sealed. Far be it for a Marine to play skunk at the picnic. And, after all, he was being honored that day at the same Veterans of Foreign Wars convention where Cheney spoke. As seems clear now, Zinni was also lusting after the lucrative spoils of war given to erstwhile generals who offer themselves for membership on the corporate Boards of the arms makers/merchants that profiteer on war. (For an earlier critique of senior Marines, see: “Attacking Syria: Thumbing Noses at Constitution and Law.” ) Marine officer, now Sen. Pat Roberts, R, Kansas, merits “dishonorable mention” in this connection. He never rose to general, but did become Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee at an auspicious time for Cheney and Bush. Roberts kowtowed, like a “good Marine,” to their crass deceit, when a dollop of honesty on his part could have prevented the 2003 attack on Iraq and the killing, maiming, destruction, and chaos that continues to this day. Roberts knew all about the fraudulent intelligence, and covered it up – together with other lies – for as long as he remained Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Scott Ritter on Pat Roberts Roberts’s unconscionable dereliction of duty enraged one honest Marine, Maj. Scott Ritter, who believes “Semper Fi” includes an obligation to tell the truth on matters of war and peace. Ritter, former UN chief weapons inspector for Iraq, who in April wrote in April 2005 “Semper Fraud, Senator Roberts,” based partly on his own experience with that complicit Marine. Needless to say, higher ranking, more malleable Marines aped Zinni in impersonating Uncle Remus’s Tar Baby – not saying nuttin’. It is conceivable that yet another sharply-saluting Marine, departing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, may be tapped by Trump to take Mattis’s job. If that happens, it will add to President Trump’s bizarre penchant for picking advisers hell bent on frustrating the objectives he espoused when he was running for office, some of which – it is becoming quite clear – he genuinely wants to achieve. Trump ought to unleash Mattis now, and make sure Mattis keeps his distance from the Pentagon and the Military-Industrial Complex, before he is asked to lead an insurrection against a highly vulnerable president – as Gen. Smedley Butler was asked to do back in the day. Butler said no. Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. His 27-year career as a CIA analyst includes serving as Chief of the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch and preparer/briefer of the President’s Daily Brief. He is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). William Binney worked for NSA for 36 years, retiring in 2001 as the technical director of world military and geopolitical analysis and reporting; he created many of the collection systems still used by NSA. Reprinted with permission from Consortium News.
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#1. To: Ada (#0)
Since he was never in combat,how the hell would he know? As far as I can tell from his public record,he was VERY careful to avoid combat command until while he was still a company grade officer,and make his first appearance in a combat unit as a Field Grade staff officer. Field Grade officers do NOT get involved in active combat operations as participants. They remain in the rear to access information and issue commands. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ In the entire history of the world,the only nations that had to build walls to keep their own citizens from leaving were those with leftist governments.
One would think a Marine and especially a General in the Marine Corp would by now have a very clear understanding of the Chain of Command. What would "Mad Dog's" reaction have been had he given an order to jump and the officer's response wasn't "Yes Sir, How high?" WTF is being taught in our Military Academies? If it is indeed a ruse, I would think you don't make public the fact that the Pentagon doesn't take their orders from the Commander and Chief. At the very least you need to play the game, because now there either needs to be a complete house cleaning of the Pentagon, or we need to admit openly the US is certainly not the democracy it has claimed to be. The Military Coup that Smedley D. Butler had privately pointed out had taken place so long ago, is now a open matter of fact. You don't Kennel "Mad Dogs", those need to be put down.
+1
Mattis served his purpose and now DJT has shitcanned him. Adios, adieu, hasta la vista, au revoir, arrivederci, etc.
“With the exception of Whites, the rule among the peoples of the world, whether residing in their homelands or settled in Western democracies, is ethnocentrism and moral particularism: they stick together and good means what is good for their ethnic group." Unfortunately the Pentagon is full of his type.
You misspelled "Pentagram". ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ In the entire history of the world,the only nations that had to build walls to keep their own citizens from leaving were those with leftist governments.
Outgoing Defense Secretary Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis was famous for quipping, “It’s fun to shoot some people.”
#2. To: sneakypete (#1)
#3. To: Ada (#2)
"Define yourself as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion."—Brennan Manning
#4. To: Ada (#0)
-Alex Kurtagic 
#5. To: X-15 (#4)
Mattis served his purpose and now DJT has shitcanned him.
#6. To: Ada (#5)
Unfortunately the Pentagon is full of his type.
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