Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis Compares Donald Trump To NAZIS And Violating The U.S. Constitution

In Union There Is Strength: A Statement by Jim Mattis

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.

WNU Editor: The former Defense Secretary lost me when he compared President Trump to the Nazis. For a person who prides himself with history, he is appallingly ignorant on what Nazism really is.

More News On Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis Statement On President Trump

James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution -- Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic
Ex-defense chief Mattis rips Trump for dividing Americans -- AP
After long silence, Mattis denounces Trump and military response to crisis -- Reuters
BREAKING NEWS: Former defense secretary Jim Mattis compares Donald Trump to NAZIS, accuses him of 'mockery of the Constitution' and 'abuse' of power and slams 'military leadership' for taking part in 'bizarre photo-op' -- Daily Mail
Former Pentagon chief Jim Mattis says Trump trying to 'divide' America -- France 24
Mattis goes after Trump: The president ‘tries to divide us’ -- Politico
Former Defense Secretary Mattis breaks silence and tears into Trump: ‘He tries to divide us’ -- CNBC
'He tries to divide us': Former Defense Secretary Mattis compares Trump's protest response to Nazi tactics -- NBC
'We Can Unite Without Him': Former Defense Secretary Slams Trump as Threat to US Constitution -- Sputnik

Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis: 'It's Absolutely A Given That ISIS Will Come Back'

Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis warned Sunday that ISIS will 'absolutely come back' with the removal of U.S. troops from Syria

Daily Mail: 'It's absolutely a given that ISIS will come back': Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis warns that the terrorist organization will resurge with Trump's removal of U.S. troops from Syria

* Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis warned Sunday that ISIS will 'absolutely come back' with the removal of U.S. troops from Syria
* 'ISIS is not defeated. We have got to keep the pressure on ISIS so they don't recover,' he told Chuck Todd on Meet The Press
* On Thursday, President Trump defended his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria and abandon America's Kurdish allies to a Turkish invasion
* Trump also suggested that he isn't worried about ISIS fighters being held by the Kurds escaping amid Turkish attacks, because 'they'll go back to Europe'

Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis is warning that ISIS will 'absolutely come back' with the removal of U.S. troops from Syria.

'ISIS is not defeated. We have got to keep the pressure on ISIS so they don't recover,' Mattis told Chuck Todd Sunday on Meet The Press when asked if President Trump made the right decision by pulling troops from Northern Syria last week.

'It's in a situation of disarray right now,' Mattis, who resigned as Secretary of Defense in January, said of the situation between Turkey and Syria.

'Obviously the Kurds are adapting to the Turkish attacks. We'll have to see if they can maintain the fight against ISIS. It's going to have an impact. The question is how much.

'We may want a war over; we may even declare it over. You can pull your troops out as President Obama learned the hard way out of Iraq, but the ''enemy gets the vote'', we say in the military. And in this case, if we don't keep the pressure on, then ISIS will resurge. It's absolutely a given that they will come back.'

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Update: James Mattis says Trump's troop pullout has led to 'disarray' in Syria (The Guardian)

WNU Editor: Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis is probably right. One can only hope that  since Turkish President Erdogan has broken everything, he now owns it.

Mattis Had A Plan To Capture Osama bin Laden In Tora Bora But Was Told Not To Proceed

Anti-Taliban fighters observing U.S. bombing of the cave sanctuaries of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan on December 16, 2001. Reuters NewMedia Inc./Corbis

Washington Examiner: Jim Mattis on Osama bin Laden, how ancient history guides his modern strategy, and his pithy aphorisms

Legendary military commander retired Marine Corps Gen. Jim Mattis is on a whirlwind publicity tour promoting his book Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, which he co-authored with Bing West. Washington Examiner senior writer Jamie McIntyre covered Mattis both when he was in uniform and during his stint as President Trump’s first defense secretary. The two spoke by phone last week, after McIntyre promised in an email that he wouldn’t ask the same dumb questions as everyone else, but instead would ask entirely new dumb questions. That apparently appealed to Mattis, who immediately called. The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and space.

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WNU Editor: I like Jim Mattis as a strategist. Too bad they did not proceed with his plan.

James Mattis On Call Sign Chaos

WNU Editor: Some more details here .... In new book, Mattis takes shots at the president (but not that one) (Military Times).

Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis: Pakistan The Most Dangerous Country In The World

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and President Donald Trump at the Pentagon following a meeting of the National Security Council in Washington, D.C., July 20, 2017. (DOD/U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dominique A. Pineiro)

Business Insider: Mattis says the most dangerous country in the world is Pakistan

* Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis considers Pakistan the most dangerous country in the world.
* "This is a much worse problem, I think, than anyone is writing about today," he said at an event on Tuesday.
* "We can't have the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal in the world falling into the hands of the terrorists breeding in their midst," Mattis writes in his latest book, "Call Sign Chaos."
* Mattis also spoke about what he called the "very twisted" relationship between the US and Pakistan. While the US relies on Pakistan to help it in peace talks with the Taliban, the Trump administration also pulled hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the Pakistani military.

While the world has its fair share of hot spots, from Afghanistan to Venezuela to Yemen, former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said at an event in New York on Tuesday that Pakistan topped his list of most dangerous countries.

"Of all the countries I've known, I consider Pakistan to be the most dangerous," Mattis wrote in his latest book, "Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead."

"This is a much worse problem, I think, than anyone is writing about today," he said.

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WNU Editor: I agree with his analysis. Pakistan's command and control systems for its nuclear weapons have always been a source of concern for everyone. It is also a country that has thousands of fanatical jihadists who would love to get there hands of a nuclear weapon. I call this a dangerous mixture and a disaster just waiting to happen.