General ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis up for USA defence secretary

In a November 20 tweet, the president-elect said that he was considering the “true General’s General” for the position.

Mattis retired in 2013 after a 41-year career in the Marines that took him from rifleman to Corps commandant to head of the U.S. Central Command. “We are happy to stand with them and fully support this appointment”, said RJC’s executive director Matt Brooks.

He added, “You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil”, Mattis continued.

Mattis said this during a 2005 panel in San Diego, California, according to a CNN transcript. “It’s fun to shoot some people”. I’ll be right up there with you.

Mattis isn’t only known for his work on the battlefield.

Still, Mattis’ seemingly unforgiving stances may not be harsh enough for Trump.

In a tweet last month, Mr Trump referred to him by his nickname “Mad Dog” and described him as “A true General’s General!”. “It’s about time”, Trump told the cheering crowd. Mattis has publicly criticized Russian Federation, and Trump has credited him with raising persuasive arguments against water-boarding, a harsh interrogation technique the president-elect has said should be brought back.

Trump announced his pick at a rally in OH on Thursday evening.

The appointment of the 66-year-old Mattis has thus far received positive responses from current and former US officials and lawmakers. “And I think actually making this kind of extreme shift to Mattis is really reaching out to the military … saying that our country, a strong country, is a priority to this next administration”.

Yet that prohibition is something to take seriously, many observers argue, as the US itself has often warned other countries that preserving civilian control of the military is a cornerstone of democracy.

“Civilian control of our military is a fundamental principle of American democracy, and I will not vote for an exception to this rule”, she said in a statement.

“During his decades of service in the Marines, he was widely respected by the troops under his command and his peers in uniform”, Graham said in a statement.

No fewer than three combat-experienced retired Army and Marine leaders, with multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, are on tap for high-level government jobs normally reserved for civilians. Or would confirming Mattis, a retired four-star general, endanger the nation’s founding tradition of civilian control of the military?

A former commissioner and chairman of the Federal Election Commission, McGahn represents “elected officials, candidates, national state parties, political consultants, and others on political law issues”, as a partner at the Jones Day law firm in Washington.