James Mattis’s Blistering Criticism of Obamaforeverlax wrote: ↑Wed Sep 04, 2019 4:03 pmPoints, but not my point. His came and stayed because of his "sense of duty" to the constitution, the "institution", his troops and the elected CiC asked. He didn't say at all why he didn't resign for the myriad of things he that would be justified - he did imply that the he could no longer do those things due to the current political corrosiveness.old salt wrote: ↑Wed Sep 04, 2019 3:13 pmThat just validates what I posted.foreverlax wrote: ↑Wed Sep 04, 2019 2:39 pm or maybe -
Amanpour presses Mattis: Why didn't you resign when Trump said this?
The interviewer premised her question that he resigned over Syria.
Mattis did not dispute that.
No mention of Russia.
Mattis was informed he would be relieved of command in December 2012. He writes:
I was leaving a region aflame and in disarray. The lack of an integrated regional strategy had left us adrift, and our friends confused. We were offering no leadership or direction. I left my post deeply disturbed that we had shaken our friends’ confidence and created vacuums that our adversaries would exploit.
The following year, Barack Obama failed to enforce his “red line” against Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons against civilians. “This was a shot not heard around the world,” Mattis writes. He continues:
Old friends in NATO and in the Pacific registered dismay and incredulity that America’s reputation had been seriously weakened as a credible security partner. Within thirty-six hours, I received a phone call from a friendly Pacific-nation diplomat. “Well, Jim,” he said, “I guess we’re on our own with China.”