{"id":390089,"date":"2018-12-22T04:47:33","date_gmt":"2018-12-22T03:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/send-the-mad-dog-to-the-corporate-kennel-consortiumnews\/"},"modified":"2018-12-22T04:47:33","modified_gmt":"2018-12-22T03:47:33","slug":"send-the-mad-dog-to-the-corporate-kennel-consortiumnews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/send-the-mad-dog-to-the-corporate-kennel-consortiumnews\/","title":{"rendered":"Send the Mad Dog to the Corporate Kennel \u2013 Consortiumnews"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"> \u201cMad Dog\u201d Mattis was famous for <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2005\/US\/02\/03\/general.shoot\/\">quipping<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s fun to shoot some people.\u201d It remains a supreme irony that Mattis was widely considered the only \u201cadult in the room\u201d in the Trump administration, argues Ray McGovern.<\/span><br \/><span id=\"more-31892\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">By Ray McGovern<br \/><\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><em>Special to Consortium News<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/raymcgovern_face0.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/raymcgovern_face0-150x150.jpg\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-2305\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\"  \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-2305\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/raymcgovern_face0-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\"  \/><\/noscript><\/a>Outgoing Defense Secretary Gen. James \u201cMad Dog\u201d Mattis was famous for <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2005\/US\/02\/03\/general.shoot\/\">quipping<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s fun to shoot some people.\u201d It remains a supreme irony that Mattis was widely considered the only \u201cadult in the room\u201d in the Trump administration. Compared to whom? John Bolton, the rabid neocon serving as national security adviser? That would be the epitome of \u201ccondemning with faint praise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">With his ramrod-straight image, not to mention his warrior\/scholar reputation extolled in the media, Mattis was able to disguise the reality that he was, as Col. Andrew Bacevich<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2018\/12\/21\/andrew_bacevich_on_mattis_why_we\"> put it<\/a> <\/span>on Democracy Now! this morning, \u201ctotally unimaginative.\u201d Meaning that Mattis was simply incapable of acknowledging the self-destructive, mindless nature of U.S. \u201cendless war\u201d in the Middle East, which candidate-Trump had correctly called \u201cstupid.\u201d In his resignation letter, Mattis also peddled the usual cant about the indispensable nation\u2019s aggression being good for the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_21850\" style=\"width: 508px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/general-james-mattis.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/general-james-mattis.jpg\" class=\" wp-image-21850\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"312\"  \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-21850\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/general-james-mattis.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"312\"  \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mattis: All dressed up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">Mattis was an obstacle to Trump\u2019s desire to pull troops out of Syria and Afghanistan (and remains in position to spike Trump\u2019s orders). Granted, the abrupt way Trump announced his apparently one-man decision was equally stupid. But withdrawal of ground troops is supremely sane, and Mattis was and is a large problem. And, for good or ill, Trump \u2014 not Mattis \u2014 was elected president.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><b>Marine Wisdom<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">Historically, Marines are the last place to turn for sound advice. Marine Gen. Smedley Butler (1881-1940), twice winner of the Medal of Honor, was brutally candid about this, after he paused long enough to realize, and write, \u201cWar is a Racket\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">\u201cI suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2018\/12\/21\/send-the-mad-dog-to-the-corporate-kennel\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cMad Dog\u201d Mattis was famous for quipping, \u201cIt\u2019s fun to shoot some people.\u201d It remains a supreme irony that Mattis was widely considered the only \u201cadult in the room\u201d in the Trump administration, argues Ray McGovern. By Ray McGovernSpecial to Consortium News Outgoing Defense Secretary Gen. James \u201cMad Dog\u201d Mattis was famous for quipping, \u201cIt\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2524,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-390089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2524"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}