There is an extraordinarily self-serving chapter in Bob Woodward’s new book, Rage, which relays a conversation between then-former Defense Secretary James Mattis and then-Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, in which the two contemplate taking “collective action” against the president of United States.
Here’s the snippet:
Though Woodward attempts to portray Mattis as the noble protagonist of the Trump era — oh, look, there’s the general sneaking into the National Cathedral, a busy tourist attraction, to pray for the soul of the nation — the attempt backfires. Clandestine conversations about collectively preventing the president from engaging in his preferred — and completely legal — foreign-policy goals are probably exhilarating to readers of resistance porn. But, in this country, the efficacy and morality of those foreign-policy goals are debated in the public arena and decided on Election Day. We are not ruled by generals in America.
It is unclear exactly what Mattis was referring to with his talk of “collective action” against the president. But it certainly wasn’t a mere airing of grievances. Coats himself confirms this when he tells Mattis that “speaking out didn’t seem to work.”
Mattis could have spoken out. In December 2018 he resigned after disagreeing with Trump on the question of withdrawal from Syria — a move that the president had promised to make numerous times during the 2016 campaign. It wasn’t until June of 2020 that Mattis told the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg that he had come to the realization that Trump was a threat to the Constitution just that weekend. But, given that the scene in Woodward’s book occurred in 2019, that can’t be true. Or, Woodward’s account can’t be true. Or both. Either way, it is difficult to escape the feeling that Mattis’s core problem with Trump is over policy. In Woodward’s book, Mattis complains that Trump made “a terrible decision,” that he “didn’t agree with me,” and he crossed what Woodward describes as his “red line.”
That Trump’s political choices aren’t favored by Washington’s entrenched foreign-policy elites — people who have been wrong so often that they make the Congressional Budget Office look like Nostradamus — is unsurprising. But it’s worth noting that Mattis’s record here is hardly spotless. Mattis alleges that he no longer could stomach Trump’s “disdain” for the allies. On Tuesday, Trump held a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Arab countries that have normalized agreements with the Jewish State. This alone is a bigger foreign-policy victory than anything accomplished by Obama — who had great “disdain” for long-standing allies such as Israel.
www.nationalreview.com
Hey Mattis
IT'S NOT YOUR DECISION OR CHOICE .....
If you work for the Administration, You Work for the People ass hole, not the other way around.
WE Hired Trump aka Elected Him President, to do a JOB, step up or step off .....
So Trump is ' unfit ' for NOT Making Decisions Mattis deems correct
There seems to be a lot of that going around - Vindman the Whistle Blower through the same tantrum ......
Trump ignored me, I know better .... I swear I wish Trump could put these ass holes against a wall and execute them
Here’s the snippet:
Though Woodward attempts to portray Mattis as the noble protagonist of the Trump era — oh, look, there’s the general sneaking into the National Cathedral, a busy tourist attraction, to pray for the soul of the nation — the attempt backfires. Clandestine conversations about collectively preventing the president from engaging in his preferred — and completely legal — foreign-policy goals are probably exhilarating to readers of resistance porn. But, in this country, the efficacy and morality of those foreign-policy goals are debated in the public arena and decided on Election Day. We are not ruled by generals in America.
It is unclear exactly what Mattis was referring to with his talk of “collective action” against the president. But it certainly wasn’t a mere airing of grievances. Coats himself confirms this when he tells Mattis that “speaking out didn’t seem to work.”
Mattis could have spoken out. In December 2018 he resigned after disagreeing with Trump on the question of withdrawal from Syria — a move that the president had promised to make numerous times during the 2016 campaign. It wasn’t until June of 2020 that Mattis told the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg that he had come to the realization that Trump was a threat to the Constitution just that weekend. But, given that the scene in Woodward’s book occurred in 2019, that can’t be true. Or, Woodward’s account can’t be true. Or both. Either way, it is difficult to escape the feeling that Mattis’s core problem with Trump is over policy. In Woodward’s book, Mattis complains that Trump made “a terrible decision,” that he “didn’t agree with me,” and he crossed what Woodward describes as his “red line.”
That Trump’s political choices aren’t favored by Washington’s entrenched foreign-policy elites — people who have been wrong so often that they make the Congressional Budget Office look like Nostradamus — is unsurprising. But it’s worth noting that Mattis’s record here is hardly spotless. Mattis alleges that he no longer could stomach Trump’s “disdain” for the allies. On Tuesday, Trump held a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Arab countries that have normalized agreements with the Jewish State. This alone is a bigger foreign-policy victory than anything accomplished by Obama — who had great “disdain” for long-standing allies such as Israel.
When It Comes to Trump, Mattis Is No Hero | National Review
In this country, the efficacy and morality of a president’s foreign-policy goals are debated in the public arena and decided on Election Day. We are not ruled by generals.
www.nationalreview.com
Hey Mattis
IT'S NOT YOUR DECISION OR CHOICE .....
If you work for the Administration, You Work for the People ass hole, not the other way around.
WE Hired Trump aka Elected Him President, to do a JOB, step up or step off .....
So Trump is ' unfit ' for NOT Making Decisions Mattis deems correct
There seems to be a lot of that going around - Vindman the Whistle Blower through the same tantrum ......
Trump ignored me, I know better .... I swear I wish Trump could put these ass holes against a wall and execute them
