Mattis Goes

[Kromovaracun]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-us-canada-46640114

Yet another important member of Trump's cabinet has left.

Mattis is one of the few remaining 'axis of adults' keeping the President in check.

Why do so many people keep leaving the Trump administration?

[Peter Pedant]

//Why do so many people keep leaving the Trump administration?// - er I can't guess

Mattis - who used to be 'Mad Dog'Mattis
is now latterly known as the last thread of sanity in crazytown

Gawd help us all as some Abers might quip

[Ellipsis]

Mattis was the last of the grown-ups.

Johnny Mathis sang "When a child is born".

Christmas coincidence?

[Peter Pedant]

a child as leader of the free world
hey that could be the messianic ode

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclogue_4

[ichkeria]

Yes not good news. Why do they leave?
I’d have thought that was obvious :-)

[youngmafbog]

I dont see the problem.

But then I am not an extreme lefty liberal like you lot.

[shoota]

Putin ordered Trump to dump him.

[jim360]

I suppose the problem is that it doesn't say much for a president when his Defence Secretary writes a letter that pretty much blatantly says, "I think the US should respect its allies and resist its enemies. The president does not agree with me."

[ichkeria]

Good grief.
Not at all damning.

[ChillDoubt]

I can only surmise that Mad Dog(a nickname he detests apparently) left because he was undoubtedly the sharpest knife in the drawer but as Mark Twain said:
Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

[andy-hughes]

The President has a seriously simplistic view of how his office works - it works like his business deals work, you negotiate, and you play hard ball, and you expect to win all day every day.

The problem is, the White House does not run like that.

He is dealing with alliances that have existed for decades, lives have been lost to secure them, even more lives will be lost if they are broken.

From his child-like viewpoint, the President sees 'American troops abroad, we've beaten terrorism, no need for them to stay and fight any more'.

The fact is, a lot of American forces abroad are peace-keeping, not fighting, and their removal will allow Isis to sweep back in and all the gains made at such a loss of Allied lives will be destroyed.

The man is a fool, and a liability, he should be impeached for the incompetnant he is - today.

[ChillDoubt]

Joking aside, when a businessman starts making unilateral decisions about troo deployments without consulting a highly decorated and universally respected officer with decades of experience it tends to go south pretty quickly.

[ChillDoubt]

*troop

[Kromovaracun]

//But then I am not an extreme lefty liberal like you lot.//

You have a very strange definition of extremism.

[Khandro]

Would you put your own life on the line (or your son's) to fight for the self-determination of the Kurds (as much as you believe in their cause)
Answer truthfully please (or shut it).

[Zacs-Master]

I’m always on the side of the Whey, myself.

[Kromovaracun]

No, I wouldn't, Khandro. There are not many things I would be willing to risk my life for. But I'm not

a) a professional soldier

b) the leader of the most powerful country on earth.

[Khandro]

CNN, the 24/7 Hate Trump Network, headlined its story on the withdrawal “Trump orders rapid withdrawal from Syria in apparent reversal,” giving the impression that an erratic Trump was changing course, only to admit in the article itself that the President “has long signaled his desire to get out of Syria.”

Meanwhile, in his self-righteous and condescending resignation letter, which is being heralded by all the usual establishment suspects today as a positively Confucian outpouring of wisdom, even Mattis admits that he agrees with Trump on the salient issue at play in Syria: “Like you, I have said from the beginning that the armed forces of the United States should not be the policeman of the world.”

[Kromovaracun]

Do you think ISIS has been defeated in Syria as the President claimed, Khandro?

[Khandro]

ISIS is an ideological dream and as such it can't be 'defeated'.
There are a few pockets of them left in Syria, as I asked you previously, do you want to go, or send your son, to finish them off ?

No? I didn't think so, but you'd happily send an American boy, is that right?

[Kromovaracun]

Someone who has volunteered to become a professional soldier? It's kind of in their job description, Khandro. I'm not going to run into burning buildings or start trying to catch criminals on my own, either. It's not something I'm qualified to do. That is an insane standard.

And the USA is the most powerful country in the world by some measure - whether the President likes it or not, that puts the US government in a position of responsibility. It also behoves someone in that position to avoid making policy by tweet. If the USA wants to shut in and isolate itself, and treat their allies like crap, it's going to find that the world doesn't look to Washington for leadership anymore.