Tag Archives: SecDef

Who is General James Mattis?

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general-james-mattisUSMC General (four star) James Mattis (ret.) has been selected as Donald Trump’s nominee for the new administration’s Secretary of Defense.

People ask: who is James Mattis?

Ladies and gentlemen, this is James Mattis.

A General Mattis Christmas Story

Featured from the National Museum of the Marine Corps Museum’s Facebook Page

A couple of months ago, when I told General Krulak, the former Commandant of the Marine Corps, now the chair of the Naval Academy Board of Visitors, that we were having General Mattis speak this evening, he said, “Let me tell you a Jim Mattis story.” General Krulak said, when he was Commandant of the Marine Corps, every year, starting about a week before Christmas, he and his wife would bake hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Christmas cookies. They would package them in small bundles.

 Then on Christmas day, he would load his vehicle. At about 4 a.m., General Krulak would drive himself to every Marine guard post in the Washington-Annapolis-Baltimore area and deliver a small package of Christmas cookies to whatever Marines were pulling guard duty that day. He said that one year, he had gone down to Quantico as one of his stops to deliver Christmas cookies to the Marines on guard duty. He went to the command center and gave a package to the lance corporal who was on duty.

 He asked, “Who’s the officer of the day?” The lance corporal said, “Sir, it’s Brigadier General Mattis.” And General Krulak said, “No, no, no. I know who General Mattis is. I mean, who’s the officer of the day today, Christmas day?” The lance corporal, feeling a little anxious, said, “Sir, it is Brigadier General Mattis.”

 General Krulak said that, about that time, he spotted in the back room a cot, or a daybed. He said, “No, Lance Corporal. Who slept in that bed last night?” The lance corporal said, “Sir, it was Brigadier General Mattis.”

About that time, General Krulak said that General Mattis came in, in a duty uniform with a sword, and General Krulak said, “Jim, what are you doing here on Christmas day? Why do you have duty?” General Mattis told him that the young officer who was scheduled to have duty on Christmas day had a family, and General Mattis decided it was better for the young officer to spend Christmas Day with his family, and so he chose to have duty on Christmas Day.

General Krulak said, “That’s the kind of officer that Jim Mattis is.”

The story above was told by Dr. Albert C. Pierce, the Director of the Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics at The United States Naval Academy. He was introducing General James Mattis who gave a lecture on Ethical Challenges in Contemporary Conflict in the spring of 2006. This was taken from the transcript of that lecture.

Frankly, as I read that, I choked up a bit and my eyes began to water.

To me, this provides all the information I need to know about a true leader.

BZ

george-smith-patton-quote

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Military walks back Bergdahl

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Obama On PhoneBecause it “somehow” got out to the media that Army authorities are “considering” charging Bowe Bergdahl, the Spite House got wind of the coverage and lit up the telephone lines to the Pentagon and US Army Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno.

The phone call went something like this:

SPITE HOUSE SWITCHBOARD: General, please hold for the president of the United States.

(15 minutes go by)

(clicks)

OBAMA: Ray?

ODIERNO: Yes, Mr President?

OBAMA: Do you like your budget, Ray?

ODIERNO: Yes, Mr President.

OBAMA: You like your job?  Your retirement?

ODIERNO: Yes sir, Mr President.

OBAMA: You like making me look stupid, Ray?

ODIERNO: No sir, Mr President.

OBAMA: Then you put a cork in that shit about Bergdahl and walk it back in the next fifteen minutes.  Or your budget will be cut by half and you can kiss your job and retirement goodbye.

(pause)

OBAMA: Are you understanding me, Ray?  Getting through?

ODIERNO: Yes sir.  Loud and clear sir.

(Obama slams down phone.)

Major General Ronald Lewis, the Army’s head of public affairs, said that report, and another from Fox News, were “patently false.”

Patently false.  Right.

The Army just got its ass scalded because it made Obama look like what he is: ignorant, naive and incompetent.

BZ

 

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Bowe Bergdahl to be charged: desertion

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Bowe Bergdahl Charged With DesertionAnd with that, do you suppose Mr Obama will remove his tie again and make the announcement in the Rose Garden with Bergdahl’s loving parents looking on?

Ta-ta, Bowe.  See you in Leavenworth.

Asshole.

BZ

P.S.
Exchanging Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders from Gitmo doesn’t appear quite so wonderful a trade now, does it, Mr Obama?

Susan Rice Said About BergdahlSusan Rice said Bowe Bergdahl “served the United States with honor and distinction.”

Liar.

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Never Obama’s fault: Hagel thrown under the bus for Bergdahl

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Obama Driving the BusIsn’t it amazing how Mr Obama is never really responsible for anything that occurs in his administration?  Luckily, it’s always the fault of “someone else” instead of Mr Barack Hussein Obama.  As some have said, it’s good to be proficient but it’s equally good or truly better to have excellent luck as well.

Mr Obama seems to have great continuing amounts of luck because, as it turns out, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel actually personally made the call to trade five Taliban leaders for Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, not Barack Hussein Obama.

Mr Obama is saved once again.  This is indeed reassuring, is it not?

Speaking of “again,” the UK media again beats the American Media Maggots

From the UKDailyMail.com:

Now the White House says Hagel made final call on Bergdahl as criticism of Obama over prisoner swap mounts

Isn’t it odd that the trade of five Taliban leaders for Sgt Bowe Bergdahl was, according to DC, simply a good thing at the outset.  Nobody noticed.  Move on.

  • Congress learned on Monday that Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel gave final approval for the prisoner exchange that freed Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
  • Last week, Hagel said the swap was a unanimous decision made by senior officials
  • Hagel is expected to defend the prisoner exchange on Wednesday in an appearance before the House Armed Services Committee

And now that Bergdahl’s primacy was due to his health, and then due to his jeopardy, there is now a NEW meme created by DC: “it’s not Obama’s fault.”

Nor should it be — when Barack Hussein Obama has any number of martyrs and kamikazes set in place in order to politically ricochet negative issues off of his tough hide.

To keep him safe and sipping calm soup nightly.

Sometimes sacrifices have to be made.

– Father John: Sacrifices have to be made, mister.  These people are at war!
– Harry: So am I.
– Father John: How dare you pull a gun in the house of God.  If you don’t believe in the sanctity of the church —
– Harry: I don’t have time to argue religion with you, boy.

And I don’t have time to posit anything but: Hagel, thrown under the DC Political Bus by Mr Obama.

BZ

 

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What is up regarding Bob Bergdahl, father of US Army Sgt Bowe Bergdahl? Calvinist? Muslim?

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Hegel Guantanomo 5 ReleasesSgt Bowe Bergdahl, newly-released from his Taliban captors (having been in their custody for five years, missing since May 30th of 2009) in exchange for five very high-ranking Taliban leaders from Gitmo, has been isolated from the media and the rest of the world since his recovery.  There is no so-called “ticker tape parade” in honor of his recovery.  There is only silence.  He is, officially, being attended by psychiatrists and doctors.  Information indicates he is having trouble speaking English.

[That said — the exchange was absolutely unprecedented in the history of presidents.  No one has done so under these conditions, save Mr Obama.]

On Saturday, May 31st, the parents — Bob and Jani — of Sgt Bowe Bergdahl spoke in the Rose Garden of the Spite House with Mr Obama present.

It looked like this:

Bob Bergdahl concluded his remarks about the release of his son Bowe, praised “Allah,” and then Mr Obama hugged him.

“To the people of Afghanistan, the same.”

People are ascribing Islam to Mr and Mrs Bergdahl.  I’m not so sure.  I’m wondering if Bowe was raised Calvinist in Idaho.

“To the people of Afghanistan, the same.”

If not Calvinist, then Bob and Jani instilled various Pacifist philosophies into the wheelhouse of Bowe.  He was rejected from the French Foreign Legion.  He looked for ways to change society and — the biggest potential point yet — sought them in the US military.  This was a guy who was not only tone deaf, ignorant of history, poorly educated, naive, but sufficiently arrogant to think that he could simply change Life as we know it.

But one path proscribes another which led to: joining the US military.

Bowe Bergdahl CapThe UKMailOnline said:

Taliban prisoner swap was ILLEGAL claims GOP as former federal prosecutor says it could lead to Obama’s impeachment

  • The president ignored a law – which he signed last year – requiring him to notify Congress 30 days before releasing anyone from Guantanamo Bay
Barack Obama broke a federal law that he signed just six months ago when he authorized the release of five high-ranking Taliban terror targets from the Guantanamo Bay detention center in exchange for the return of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, senior congressional Republicans claimed today.

And at least six soldiers lost their lives in circumstances related to the Idaho native’s disappearance from his post on June 30, 2009. Parents of one dead military men were told that their son perished in a mission aimed at taking down a Taliban target, not capturing a deserter.

Add it up.

Add it all up.

It is a work in progress but it is not a good work.

BZ

P.S.
Like any good Millennial, as far as Bowe Bergdahl was concerned, it was all about him.

And what about the timing?

 

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