Posted on 12/26/2018 9:54:27 AM PST by Yo-Yo
The president needs help uprooting a Washington foreign-policy establishment that has mindlessly kept the U.S. military involved in unnecessary wars across the globe. The next top military leader must share this goal.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis is a good man and a patriot who has served his country with distinction. President Trump was right, however, in asking for his resignation because Mattis represents the Washington foreign-policy establishment that has mindlessly kept the U.S. military involved in unnecessary wars across the globe.
President Donald Trump ran on a realist platform, decrying “stupid wars,” and vowing that there would be “ no more nation building .” Classic thinking in Washington’s swamp, however, holds to the demonstrably false premise that the application or threat of force is necessary to keep us safe; occupying foreign lands with U.S. combat troops is almost the default position of the foreign policy’s elite group-think. One of the problems from which Mattis—and other establishment-thinkers suffer—is a disconnect from how a majority of Americans think.
On September 30, 2016, near the end of the campaign, Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” explained why people were supporting Trump despite “all his flaws.”
The Washington elite, he said , don’t understand the “patriotic feelings people have” who “feel like the country has been let down. Our elite leaders on issues like immigration, they don't regulate any immigration it seems. They don't regulate trade to our advantage,” and most pointedly, “They take us into stupid wars. Their kids don’t fight, but our kids do.” A poll conducted on the seventeenth anniversary of the Afghan war shows that these sentiments have only increased.
A Charles Koch and RealClearPolitics poll found that “51 percent of respondents say that it either is time to decrease Afghanistan troop levels or to remove all troops from the country in the next 12 months.” Trump either has the same inclinations, or he’s acutely aware that his base does not want our troops in in Afghanistan. Trump has always intended to get out of Afghanistan.
As late as 2013, Trump tweeted , “We should leave Afghanistan immediately. No more wasted lives. If we have to go back in, we go in hard & quick. Rebuild the U.S. first.”
Yet in August 2017, he announced that he was not going to withdraw, but instead expand the number of troops. In explaining the turn-around, Trump said , “My original instinct was to pull out, and historically I like following my instincts, but all of my life I heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office.” Was Mattis a key reason for the reversal?
According to reports, Mattis told Trump that if he withdrew from Afghanistan, then what “happened in Iraq under President Obama with the emergence of ISIS will happen under you, Mattis told Trump, in one of his sharpest declarations.”
Following Mattis’ declaration, the president replied in disgust, “You all are telling me that I have to do this,” and “I guess that’s fine and we’ll do it , but I still think you’re wrong. I don’t know what this is for. It hasn’t gotten us anything. We’ve spent trillions.” A similar dynamic occurred when Trump wanted to get out of Syria in April of this year, telling a rally in Ohio that he was going to get out of Syria “very soon.”
Later that same month, however, Mattis contradicted his commander-in-chief and said , “We do not want to simply pull out before the diplomats have won the peace.” Trump again submitted to Mattis’ advice and no move to withdraw troops happened.
But it appears Trump’s frustration with his senior military advisors constantly pushing back on his instincts reached a climax, and Trump ordered the withdrawal from Syria. Mattis’ resignation was the logical next step.
The president’s instincts on withdrawing from both Syria and Afghanistan were right from the beginning, but his most senior aides talked him out of following through with those instincts. The person he next selects for the role of Secretary of Defense needs to share his realist beliefs. This person must also be someone who knows how to navigate Washington, understands issues of war and peace, and is a strong leader.
Trump is right: things do indeed look different when one sits in the Oval Office. But he was elected to that position because his instincts matched those of large segments of the American population, and it is right for him to turn his campaign promises into reality once in office. He needs senior advisors who are going to effectively implement those sound policies, not thwart them.
Daniel L. Davis is a senior fellow for Defense Priorities and a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army who retired in 2015 after twenty-one years, including four combat deployments. Follow him @DanielLDavis1 .
But the time has come for a new perspective on the world.
I hope Trump understands defeating ISIS and defending the Kurds is not the same thing.
I want a Sec. Def. who DOESN’T want queers in the Military.
-—Classic thinking in Washington’s swamp, however, holds to the demonstrably false premise that the application or threat of force is necessary to keep us safe...-—
I beg to differ with the author on this one point - the MIC cares far less about ‘keeping us safe’, and far more about keeping them rich. All those trillions go somewhere, and that somewhere is in their pockets.
If keeping us ‘safe’ was a priority, the southern border would be sealed with super glue, and the likes of MS-13 would be eating bananas in some remote village in Paraguay instead of killing here.
“I hope Trump understands defeating ISIS and defending the Kurds is not the same thing.”
Whatever is meant by that?
The Kurds are cutting a deal with Syria and Russia, as they should.
Many of us thought ‘Mad Dog’ would have the stones to do just that, being a Marine and all.
But the destructive PC culture in the armed forces has only gotten worse.
List of people who won’t be approving the next Defense Secretary.
John McCain
Bob Corker
Jeff Flake
Claire McCaskell
Bill Nelson
Joe Donnelly
Heidi Heitkamp
While I can understand a mission in Syria, it’s hard to justify long term troops on the ground in Syria.
He was a so-called warrior scholar. We could have done without all the scholarship.
You're barkin' up the wrong tree. The US has screwed the Kurds so often during the past 75 years it must be the default activity when people in the command responsible can't think of anything else to do.
The permanent government folks who deal with Turkey get ticked at the regime of the moment in Istanbul and arm the Kurds, make them a bundle of promises, then reach an understanding with the Turks who then proceed to tear into the Kurds yet again.
Trump walked in the door of the Whitehouse after a decade and a half plus of our wonderful military leadership using hundreds of million dollar or more each missiles to bounce rubble around in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bouncing rubble and dirt piles in the parts of Syria, Iraq, and Turkey, the Kurds claim for a decade or so isn't going to do anything but waste more money.
Me too! Unfortunately, I am one gubmint employee who won’t get an unexpected vacation during the shutdown. I work for DOD and our budget for the fiscal year was approved back in September.
President Trump’s first pick for Secretary of Defense (who he may very well ask again to serve as a replacement for Mattis) is General Jack Keane. It’s been pointed out that Keane’s views on foreign policy are no closer to Trump’s than General Mattis has been. If anything, Keane would have been/would be an even worse fit for Trump’s stated agenda than Mattis.
W00T! W00T!
“On September 30, 2016, near the end of the campaign, Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” explained why people were supporting Trump despite “all his flaws.”
The Washington elite, he said , don’t understand the “patriotic feelings people have” who “feel like the country has been let down. Our elite leaders on issues like immigration, they don’t regulate any immigration it seems. They don’t regulate trade to our advantage,” and most pointedly, “They take us into stupid wars. Their kids don’t fight, but our kids do.” A poll conducted on the seventeenth anniversary of the Afghan war shows that these sentiments have only increased.”
See, these Marxist commentators really do understand the situation. It’s just that the truth gets in the way of their form of governance. Someone please tell us how ALL the Wars we’ve been in since the end of WWII, have accomplished any purpose save quadrupling our national debt and killing 60,000 or more of our young mostly men? Just think of how different things would have been if a Trump had followed FDR! For openers, Korea would have been unified in 1950 and the Chinese would be home licking their wounds after a few nuclear weapons had been visited upon them had they not stayed out of Korea! Truman was such a d!ck!
He needs a single advisor that actually works for him, anybody know one for a fact?
Not going to happen. Mad Dog Mattis was quickly revealed to be Twinkle Toes Mattis. I think Obozo fired any top generals that were not down low for the struggle.
He needs multiple advisers with multiple points of view, and Trump needs to be open-minded enough to listen to views counter to his own.
He then needs to have the conviction to make a decision and stick with it, even if it is not a popular decision.
I think Trump is doing O.K. in both departments. It's when the adviser whose suggestions are nixed throws a hissy fit is when Trump's signature Apprentice phrase comes into play.
He has Ryan and Mitch who else does he need? Mattis, Sessions?
Mad Dog realized that the purpose of the military is to kill people and break stuff. That’s as reality-based as it gets.
I wouldn’t give a fig for a guard dog that doesn’t strain at the leash. If Trump wants a guard dog that only gets motivated to be vicious when its master kicks it in the rump, I don’t want him for my CINC.
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