James Mattis resigned as Secretary of Defense in 2018. His letter of resignation was scathing, but Donald Trump was too stupid to understand it, until Fox News translated it for him. Since that time, General Mattis has been silent. But no longer. There is nothing that I can say about this statement to amplify it, so here it is, in full from Axios:
“I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.
When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.
We must reject any thinking of our cities as a “battlespace” that our uniformed military is called upon to “dominate.” At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.
James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that “America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.” We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.
Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.
Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.
We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite.
Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.”
This is true. Right now Trump is attempting to hold the G7 in Washington and Angela Merkel is refusing to come. She’s been quoting saying, “I don’t want to be in the same room with him.” Trump wants Russia invited back to the G7 and Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson have already gone on record against it. Trump is isolated and alone for exactly the reasons that Mattis describes herein.
What a day for Bunker Boy! A new Lincoln Project ad and General Mattis comes out of the shadows. Better to inspect the bunker a second time! HA!
I love it! This is an outstanding statement. We need to hear more from voices like this.
And the idiotic, childish tweet comes 3 – 2 – 1. He will call Mattis a loser or worse. At least he finally did it. I hope more will speak out and stand up for the Constitution and against 45.
I had my differences with Mattis on some policies. However I believed he’d be, and since his departure feel he was a check on the worst of Trump’s impulses. He is also far smarter than Trump ever dreamed of being. In addition to being an actual warrior he became a scholar as well. I will always believe the only reason Trump picked him in the first place was the nickname “Mad Dog” – which Mattis has always hated. I don’t know the origins, but Mattis was widely regarded as one of the smartest generals we’ve ever had, and he wasn’t one to go off half cocked. I suspect whoever coined the nickname did so as one of those ironic things – like naming a tall and big guy “Tiny”, or a bald guy “Curly.”
Like many folks I laughed my ass off when Trump proved too fucking stupid to understand how massively Mattis was trashing him in that resignation letter. I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall when someone got through that thick head of Trump’s what Mattis had actually said about him. The tantrum was probably epic, complete with activating one of those cell phone signal blockers to rein in a tweetstorm that might have even shaken Republicans enough to dump his ass.
This time, even a dumbass like Trump can tell without an interpreter that Mattis has called him out as the piece of shit he (Trump) is, and laid down a marker anyone in senior military leadership will take note of. Mullin, now Mattis, and I can’t help but hope the dam will break and even senior active duty officers will resign in protest. The Joint Chiefs should already have done so and did not so we know they’ve given their balls to Trump. But there are others. What I’d really like to see is a retired Commandant of West Point call out Esper and Pompeo and a few others of that gang who have violated the very essence of that institution’s principles and honor code.
It’s going to be interesting as this week continues. Trump is sure to trash Mattis and in doing so he’s going to look even worse. Especially with the troops. Trump has already been underwater in approval rating with the officer corps in our military. I just hope the Military Times moves up its annual survey of Presidential approval and publishes it in the middle of the general election campaign.
Wow. I am straight up in awe of this man!
The nation needs so much more of this. More truth, spoken by people in positions of power, of influence & of integrity. That rules out the entire Republican Senate, who are far too compromised now to ever regain anything resembling respect from the people. The US military, especially, cannot allow itself & its proud traditions to be destroyed by this criminal administration. It must perform its primary duty, the defence of the American Republic. That begins with telling the truth.
“It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part.” A line that law enforcement crossed a while ago.
I nominate Mattis for President