Mattis Resigns …. in Protest? -The iPINIONS Journal

My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held.

Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.

(CBS News, December 21, 2018)

This is the essence of the resignation letter James Mattis personally delivered to President Trump yesterday. He shocked the world, becoming the first Secretary of Defense in US history to resign in protest.

But I hope I can be forgiven for wondering what took him so long. After all, Trump has been championing policies that offend America’s foundational values and undermine its national security from day one of his presidency.

It’s worth recalling in this context what putatively sensible Republicans (most notably Senator John McCain of Arizona) insisted was Trump’s only saving grace. It was his decision to nominate cabinet members like Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Those Republicans assured the world that these secretaries would have an enlightening effect on Trump. But am I the only one who has yet to see any of that effect? Even worse, there’s often no difference between what we hear from them and what we hear from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Trump’s other PR flaks. These secretaries and those Republicans have some ‘splainin’ to do.

(“The Week Trump Kissed Up to Saudi Arabia, Kissed Off Europe, and French Kissed the Philippines,” The iPINIONS Journal, May 30, 2017)

Significantly, Mattis was the “last man standing” among the advisers many hoped would provide the adult supervision Trump so clearly needs.

That said, I marveled at the way Republican and Democratic leaders alike rushed to defend Mattis’s tenure. William Cohen, one of his predecessors as Secretary of Defense, epitomized their take:

On the one hand, Cohen hailed the way Mattis kept America’s ship of state from going the way of the Titanic under Trump’s stewardship. On the other hand, he assailed the way Trump took a wrecking ball to the democratic institutions and alliances that have enabled an unprecedented period of global peace and prosperity over the past 70 years.

Which clearly raises the question: What was Mattis doing while Trump was wielding that wrecking ball?

In damning Trump’s destructive agenda, Cohen cited, among other things, his Muslim travel ban, withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement, NATO bashing, withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Deal, and withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Accord. He also hinted at Trump’s penchant for coddling dictators like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan while dissing democrats like Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Germany’s Angela Merkel.

Cohen’s informed suggestion is that Mattis had material disagreement with Trump on each point. But none of that moved Mattis to resign.

In fact, he reinforced my disillusionment with his service when he saluted and obeyed Trump’s decision to use the military as a political stunt. Recall that, on the eve of November’s midterm elections, Trump ordered thousands of troops to man the US-Mexico border. He did so in an obvious attempt to justify his scaremongering over a migrant caravan of mostly women and children seeking asylum.

Yet, instead of protesting, Mattis defended this as a necessary deployment for national security. I duly condemned him in “Migrant Caravan Has Mattis Abandoning Military Principles for Trumpian Politics,” November 1, 2018.

Given all that, I am seized with the irony that the Trump policy that finally forced him to resign is one I actually agree with: the withdrawal of all troops from Syria. I am convinced the United States should withdraw. Because all indications are that, if it stays, it will have even less to show for its efforts and sacrifices 17 years from now than it has to show today after 17 years in Afghanistan. Trump has ordered a partial withdrawal, but it should be a complete one there too.

I shall refrain from beating my dead horse about the folly of fighting unwinnable wars. Instead, I refer you to commentaries with respect to Syria that include “Why Is Killing with Gas (Syria) Any More Inhumane than Killing with Guns,” August 23, 2013, “Russia and United States in Chess Game for Syria,” September 13, 2013, “Bombing ISIS Smacks of Masturbatory Violence,” November 18, 2015, “Obama Continues Vietnam-Style Mission Creep In Iraq (Afghanistan and Syria),” April 20, 2016, and “Syria: Mission Accomplished?” April 15, 2018.

I respect Mattis’s long and distinguished career in military service. And his stint as Secretary of Defense should have been his crowning achievement. But, like so many, his service in this administration will be a blight on an otherwise stellar career.

Meanwhile, his resignation lays bare the dysfunction, disillusionment, general administrative incompetence, and amorality that characterize the Trump administration. More to the point, it bodes ill that its turnover at the cabinet level is more than occurred over the first two years of the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations combined. This, especially because what distinguishes the replacement in each case is that person’s manifest willingness to do or say anything to demonstrate blind loyalty to Trump.

Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto [yesterday], ‘The kind of leadership that causes a dedicated patriot like Jim Mattis to leave should give pause to every American.’

As you pause, bear in mind that – with respect to the ever-looming chaos and danger of Trump’s leadership – you ain’t seen nothing yet.