Trump has chosen retired Marine Gen. James Mattis for secretary of defense

[Theinquisition]

Dont you know that GEN-OT is full of scholars? All it takes apparently is an unfinished degree and a few thousand shitpostings. I got my PHD here last year.

Anyways, Trump's team is denying that he's made a pick for SoD on twitter. He doesnt want to get out shined during his victory week parade.


Welcome to the new celebrity apprentice.

In my defense, i already have a few degrees.

[Revik]

I don't really have any issues with this pick. Definitely capable and anyone who says otherwise can't be taken seriously. Now if you disagree with their world view well that open to opinion.

[Milchshake]

In my defense, i already have a few degrees.

Oh me too. Like I said everyone just has oodles of degrees here.

Though thankfully the word count on my MMO-C posts is still lower than the word count on my Thesis paper. Dunno if I could look myself in the mirror once that gets inverted.

[Celista]

Likely Trump's least controversial cabinet pick.

[Deleted]

Might want to read up on General Mattis a bit more, he is a highly successful commander who's only real lukewarm attribute is he Co-authored our current COIN doctrine, which has seen mixed success. And at that it's hard to tell if it's the doctrines fault for that.

I doubt he will take the job honestly. There was underground support for him to run as president during the primaries which he turned down because he didn't feel he was politically fit for the job. Regardless, I voted for him for President as a write in.

I see little application of COIN in practice. It is not that I disagree with it. It is just politically impossible. He'd have to end the drone/air strikes and actually risk american soldier's lives. That will never happen. The American (and to a large extent european) populations are just insatiably bloodthirsty with zero appetite for casualties.
Like Petraus's work it is interesting but with zero possibility of whatever intelligence the man has ever actually being applied it is difficult to respect either of them since they persist to operate in institutions which work against what they know to be effective strategies. At some point, like Churchill, you have to make a decisive break with the status quo in order to acquire credibility.

[alexw]

I cant really object to him that much, but from what I know he and Flynn do not get along. So...that'll make for an interesting White House. More input from @Skroe needed.

According to @Skoe he's exactly the wrong choice. But then given that it's Trump doing the choosing that should not be a surprise.

Right now the armed forces are in the middle of a decades long rebuilding process. The continual fighting in the middle east has worn out a hell of a lot of equipment much faster than was planned for. Stuff that had a planned obsolescence in 1-2 decades needs replacing right now instead - and there is masses of it. That requires a bean-counter general in charge, not a gunslinger. Trump has chosen the latter not the former.

[Theinquisition]

Oh me too. Like I said everyone just has oodles of degrees here.

Though thankfully the word count on my MMO-C posts is still lower than the word count on my Thesis paper. Dunno if I could look myself in the mirror once that gets inverted.

Lol, what can I say, I'm a addict.

I often consider leaving this forum, but it's my favorite thing to read while I'm at work between writing contracts.

Besides, I'm not a person whose going to makeup crap about having 5 PhDs.

I have 2 AAS's and 1 BA working on my second.

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According to @Skoe he's exactly the wrong choice. But then given that it's Trump doing the choosing that should not be a surprise.

Right now the armed forces are in the middle of a decades long rebuilding process. The continual fighting in the middle east has worn out a hell of a lot of equipment much faster than was planned for. Stuff that had a planned obsolescence in 1-2 decades needs replacing right now instead - and there is masses of it. That requires a bean-counter general in charge, not a gunslinger. Trump has chosen the latter not the former.

If you did some reading about mattis, Youd understand that he's not itching to jump into a fight, he just believes that IF you are going to fight, you engage your brain before your weapon, and you go in with the intention of winning.

[Deleted]

Awesome pick.

[alexw]

Lol, what can I say, I'm a addict.

I often consider leaving this forum, but it's my favorite thing to read while I'm at work between writing contracts.

Besides, I'm not a person whose going to makeup crap about having 5 PhDs.

I have 2 AAS's and 1 BA working on my second.

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If you did some reading about mattis, Youd understand that he's not itching to jump into a fight, he just believes that IF you are going to fight, you engage your brain before your weapon, and you go in with the intention of winning.

That's not the issue. The problem is where his skills lie, and that's in combat not in spreadsheets and procurement. It's the very fact that there isn't going to be a major war (the forces are in no condition to fight one) that makes him a bad choice vs a bean counter general. Why do you need a war-general if you are not going to go to war?

[Theinquisition]

I'm okay with this decision. All that I've read about him seems to be very positive.

You're very positive winter blossom

[Theinquisition]

That's not the issue. The problem is where his skills lie, and that's in combat not in spreadsheets and procurement. It's the very fact that there isn't going to be a major war (the forces are in no condition to fight one) that makes him a bad choice vs a bean counter general. Why do you need a gunslinger general if you are not going to gunsling?

I don't think you understand the complexity involved with being a top general in the armed forces.

You don't think generals have to work logistical, or procurement issues?

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Ima the glass is half full kinda gal

You're da best winterblossom

[Cthulhu 2020]

Oh me too. Like I said everyone just has oodles of degrees here.

Though thankfully the word count on my MMO-C posts is still lower than the word count on my Thesis paper. Dunno if I could look myself in the mirror once that gets inverted.

If you have roughly the same post count per day as Tony, you apparently have no life, at least according to him.

OT: Poor guy, he's surrounded by the swamp that is the rest of Trump's cabinet.

[alexw]

I don't think you understand the complexity involved with being a top general in the armed forces.

You don't think generals have to work logistical, or procurement issues?

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You're da best winterblossom

Not at the level we are talking about. Mattis is a combat general and everything he knows is related to that.

[Zarc]

Trump is an idiot who has made some terrible picks so far, like his Chief Strategist, National Security adviser and Attorney General.

This guy seems alright though. Hopefully we can add Mitt Romney as Secretary of State. Along with Nikki Haley as UN ambassador that would give me a glimmer of hope that Trumpf will not fuck up the world, but only the domestic situation in the United States. Which if fine by me. Seems like something that can be more easily corrected in 4 years when a Democratic Party transformed by Bernie Sanders will hopefully gain a massive amount of support.

[Baelic]

6. “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”
(San Diego Union Tribune)

Doesn't the Sniper in TF2 say something along these lines in his "Meet the" video?

[jackofwind]

I'm in my senior academic year (scholar)

It takes a hell of a lot more than that to call yourself a scholar in an academic context.

[TwoNineMarine]

As a Marine this is fantastic news.

He is the one guy that I think any living Marine would follow straight into hell.

He's level headed, incredibly intelligent, but won't stray from a fight.

He commanded the 1st Marine Division during OIF 1 and performed admirably.

I think that if anyone can be the voice of reason for Trump it'll be Mattis.

[Skroe]

I cant really object to him that much, but from what I know he and Flynn do not get along. So...that'll make for an interesting White House. More input from @Skroe needed.

Not the worst choice and not the best. What his selection means is that his deputies are going to matter.

Mattis is a brilliant strategist, tactician and fighting man. As a marine, he's universally respected. He'd be the ideal Secretary of Defense... 10 years ago or 10 years from now.

Why not today? Because the Pentagon is in the midst of it's most important, largest and expensive across-the-board modernization since the early 1980s. We're talking trillions of dollars, years of time, and the (gradual) departure of old staples like the F-16 and their replacement with newer systems. Furthermore under the last two Secretary of Defenses, the US has launched the "Third" Offset Strategy, which seeks to introduce disruptive technology and develop new doctrine around them in order to keep America's military edge over the rest of the world another generation. The first offset strategy, for the sake of historical context, was nuclear ballistic missiles. The second was precision guided munitions and network centric warfare.

What the Pentagon needs now is excellent procurement / contract guys. In Ash Carter and his deputy, Robert Work, we somehow have that right now, and Trump would be EXTREMELY wise to ask them to stay on to continue their good work, as Obama asked Robert Gates. Really, Robert Gates and Ash Carter have spent most of the past 8 years undoing the epic nightmare and massive failure that was Pentagon procurement from around 1998 to 2008, that saw systems with immature technology delivered years late, way over budget, and under promised capability. Some of those were continued because it didn't make sense to turn back. But "never again" has been their MO and whats going on with Third Offset, the B-21 Raider and the Columbia Class submarine reflects that. Furthermore the pending 2017 NDAA splits Robert Work's job in two, dividing the R&D deputy and the Procurement deputy (which is how it should be), which should be even more useful.

The most important job the Secretary of Defense has in the next 4 years is modernization. These next 4 years are incredibly crucial to American power (and American military power) beyond 2030 because of how many simultaneous things are being bought. The entire face of the US military is changing, essentially, because years of delayed replacement and long-running programs are converging.

An excellent contract guy / program manager type who can hit back against defense contractors (as Ash Carter did a month ago when he cut off negotiations with Lockheed Martin over the cost of the next Lot of F-35s by TELLING them what they were going to be paid for them) is what's needed to keep the costs from snowballing and leading to a situation where the US procures fewer of everything because of that.

Is Mattis up to that task? Nothing in his history makes me think that will be the case. For fighting a war against terrorists, he's the ideal guy at the helm of the DoD. But for what the DoD's main job is the next 4 years, while he isn't the wrong choice necessarily, he simply has no history, which leads me to my prior comment: his deputy's are going to be very important people.

I will say though that unless Trump's Secretary of State is Guliani after all, you can stick a fork in rapprochement with Russia. It's already dead on arrival. Mattis represents the US Foreign Policy / Security consensus when it comes to Russia and China. So does Petraeus. So does Romney. So does Corker. It is National Security Adviser Michael Flynn who represents, like Susan Rice under Obama, a bizarre, non-orthodox viewpoint. But something the NDA 2017 also does is cap the size of the National Security Council at 200 (this is a direct result of Susan Rice's reign of error as the country's REAL Secretary of State + Intelligence Director + Minister of War), which will dramatically reduce the National Security Adviser's ability to encroach on the Secretary of State and Defenses' turfs, weakening the position.

His appointment, in conjunction with anybody-but-Guliani, will greatly reduce the concerns our allies have over America's commitment to them and our position on warding off Russia. Even if Trump throws Putin some kind of bone, it'll be more for show than for substance. Mattis is from the camp that has pushed for things like basing 300 Marines in Norway, and moving heavy armor back to Europe. So even if Trump lifts a few minor sanctions or something, the Eastward reinforcement of NATO is almost certain to continue under Mattis.

Equally likely is that any kind of ISIS campaign will look like a slightly more kinetic version of what is going on right now. And a Partnership with Russia over Syria? Again, Dead on Arrival. It was after all, the Military itself that found creative ways to kill Obama / Kerry's partnership with Russia in its crib a couple of months back because, once again, US Military leadership is profoundly concerned about Russia's military threat to the United States, and their motives because of that.

All in all, this amounts in essence, to another bait and switch by Trump with regards to his supporters, who will cheer it because they know and like the name, but, being mostly morons, haven't spent five minutes to look at his actual professional history. If Romney, Petraeus or Corker are Secretary of State, the foreign policy / security wing of the Executive branch suddenly looks like an extremely conventional Republican administration, and one that will be extremely wary of Russia.

Conclusion: Trump could have done a lot worse, which in this dark age, counts as a win. If anybody but Guliani is Secretary of State, NATO is safe and America's global role since 1945 is safe, and that nonsense some overly emotional people wrote about the "End of the American Era" two weeks ago will be ridiculous. But with that behind us, we need to make sure that Mattis and his deputies, which are EXTREMELY important, make sure that we actually get our 350 ship navy, that we programs remain on schedule and on budget, and that the US doesn't engage in any stupid foreign adventures until we're on the other side of modernization.

The Iraq War + Financial Crisis fallout cut America's military lead over it's rivals from about 25 years to about 12 years (and in some places more narrow). Another large conflict where funds aren't spent on modernization will cut that 12 year lead down to 0 to 3 years. The only winner in a massive war between the US and Terrorists/ISIS is China and Russia. The best thing Mattis can do is keep us out of an Iraq-sized military conflict so that the third offset strategy and the doctrines it produces can build that lead back up over the next decade.

[Theinquisition]

If you have roughly the same post count per day as Tony, you apparently have no life, at least according to him.

OT: Poor guy, he's surrounded by the swamp that is the rest of Trump's cabinet.

Difference here is that I typically post during one time of day....you post day and night.

Don't project your feelings of inferiority on me.

[Crissi]

Play nice, no sniping