News coverage about General Mattis’s resignation as Secretary of Defense is surreal.
They keep saying that Mattis was a stabilizing “adult” in Trump’s regime.
But Mattis is an EXTREME HAWK known as “Mad Dog.” He resigned because Trump decided to remove U.S. troops from Syria and to reduce U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Those are small steps in the right direction. Trump is no dove, but these modest steps reduce the reckless hawkishness in U.S. foreign policy.
When Mattis resigns over those modest steps – and when mainstream media and bi-partisan members of Congress support Mattis’s extreme hawkishness instead of Trump’s modest moves away from extremist militarism – our nation has gone off the rails. Troop reductions are the right decision, even if Trump did it. The rest of the Establishment is wrong.
See information here: https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-defense-secretary-jim-mattis-retiring-in-february
The simplistic honoring of Mattis (like the simplistic honoring of both Bushes) show how simplistic mainstream media and mainstream politicians are. In order to save the USA, we need much better quality thinking in every sector.
Trump is psychiatrically disabled — really very crazy — but Mattis’s extreme hawkishness is within the range of crazy hawkishness that suits the mainstream media and mainstream politicians. NEITHER PERSON’S FOREIGN POLICY IS SANE OR REASONABLE.
I also highly recommend this article by a retired highly senior CIA analyst, Ray McGovern: https://consortiumnews.com/2018/12/21/send-the-mad-dog-to-the-corporate-kennel/?fbclid=IwAR3Z2dbpDHCMlZsG1mIV8FApJab9q1079S5iR8BsVTzQMKVkVm3j1xdbEEU
Also, Amy Goodman (www.democracynow.org) interviewed Andrew Bacevich, one of our nation’s top experts in such matters. Here is their interview: