Guess who is in the news again?
General Mad Dog Mattis who once shone darkly int the Trump admin.
Mad Dog is just another MIC grifter, but this was fun.
From the March, 2018 Sturbridge Times Magazine of beloved Memory
How Mad is Mad Dog?
By Richard Morchoe
The Washington Post had an article dated February 7, 2018 with the title Trump’s favorite general: Can Mattis check an impulsive president and still retain his trust? The implication is, let’s all hope there is a grownup watching the Donald.
The piece by reporters Greg Jaffe and Missy Ryan is what one would expect from Jeff Bezos’ newsletter. The ongoing jihad against Trump means no one is crazier than the occupant of the White House, even someone with the nickname, “Mad Dog.”
That a man who ran saying we need to get along with Russia and regime change in Syria might not be a great idea has to be restrained by the guy who the authors said was known for “pushing a reluctant Obama administration to hit back against Iran” might seem odd, but the duo is only warming up.
The hagiography of the Secretary of State and former Marine general James Mattis seems all in. One would not be surprised if at some point in the screed they had suggested the Vatican open a case for the canonization of the career warrior.
Eventually, it goes a bit off the rails. True, the man is a moderating influence on Trump, about Iran and North Korea. However, sometimes The Donald says something sensible. To quote the authors, “He has repeatedly pressed Mattis and McMaster (National Security Advisor) in stark terms to explain why U.S. troops are in Somalia. “Can’t we just pull out?”
Whatever one might want to think about Trump, that is one heck of a question. If we cut and run, will the Somalis gather a fleet of dhows and follow us home, launching an attack on our ships as they approach home port? That would be something to see, but even Mad Dog did not suggest it. He did not have much of answer.
Sometimes, the secretary is just wrong. Toward the end of the article, The president asks, “You guys want me to send troops everywhere,” Trump said, according to officials in the Situation Room meeting. “What’s the justification?”
Without even realizing it, the Secretary of Defense embarasses himself, ““Sir, we’re doing it to prevent a bomb from going off in Times Square,” Mattis replied.”
After 911 we have had troops all over the world and there has been no dearth of incidents. On April 15, 2013, just about 60 miles east of Sturbridge, at the finish line of the Marathon, two bombs were detonated. All the troops overseas did nothing to prevent that.
Of all the reported plots since 911, over 60, there have been few successful and the ones foiled were due to policework. The deployments were no factor. The marathon perps could have been stopped, as we had been tipped off, not by Defense Intel, but by those evil Russkies.
So, the correct answer to Trump’s question is, bring the boys (and girls) home.
In the April 2015 issue of the Sturbridge Times Magazine, our official think tank, The Long Hill Institute unveiled the condition of Unsanity. The Institute defined this as a condition where an individual believes feelings are thoughts, facts or arguments.
The unsane, are not insane. They do not drool at the dinner table, nor are they unable to dress themselves. The unsane* are often accomplished in some field and look good at a press conference.
So, a Mattis can say something obviously absurd with a straight face and believe it. Otherwise, he may just, as a ranking member of the Military-Industrial Complex (MIC), be pushing for more war as that is what the MIC always wants and that would just be good old fashioned honest hypocrisy.
Granted, at the Long Hill Institute, we were guilty of our usual lack of due diligence in research. Still, we believe it is valid. In the case of Mad Dog, we look at the question, “What was he thinking?”
Technically, he can dodge the issue by saying the Boston bombs were not in the Big Apple, but suggesting that the trooper pulling guard duty on a hill in Afghanistan is stopping something is unsane.
On another technicality, the jihadist who ran down eight people in New York last year did not bomb them. Still, having boots on the ground in 130 countries should be able to prevent something.
Not to beat up on the Mad Dog, but there was a pressure cooker bomb in Manhattan in 2016. True, it was an inept performance, so maybe he did not count that and it slid down Orwell’s memory hole.
Orwell further comes to mind in an Associated Press of February 2, 2018 piece. US has no evidence of Syrian use of sarin gas, Mattis says. Recognizing that in a nation with a 24 hour news cycle, memory is only short-term, most people forget that in retaliation for something we had no proof of, last April, Tomahawk missiles were launched at a Syrian airbase. In the strike, it is claimed there were military and civilian deaths.
It is ancient history, but the real reason for the strike was to prove that Trump was not Putin’s toady. What’s a few dead Syrians against that?
It is actually a bit refreshing to hear the man admit something honest. Even so, it hardly helps to clarify why we are in the house of mirrors that is the Middle East.
The man Mattis is supposed to be keeping in check, the president, got on the honesty bandwagon on February 12th at a budget meeting where he said, “As of a couple of months ago, we have spent $7 trillion in the Middle East. Seven trillion dollars. What a mistake. But it is what is,”
It was true but irrelevant. We aren’t leaving though we accomplish nothing and waste much.
Some commentators say there is a “deep state”, that is a permanent government that has an agenda not that of the electorate. Up on Long Hill, we would posit that there is a nomenklatura, but that members of the governing class exist in one big outdoor unsane asylum that is our nation’s capital.
*Not to be confused with the upcoming movie, “Unsane,” by Steven Soderbergh. He has no right to the use of Unsane and Long Hill Institute attorneys would be calling on him if we could afford them.