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And that's how America works.

/thread

chaos0xomega wrote:
Except the duly elected officials are the cause of most of the problems, and the voters can only do something about it during election years.

True... it can be an imperfect system... but, what else can we do?

The Military answers to these civilian officials. It's been that way for ages. Having said that, it's incumbent on the voters to ELECT those politicians who can be good leaders.

Good thing we have a revolution every 4 years.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ouze wrote:
And that's how American works.

/thread

LOL!
Ninja'ed

chaos0xomega wrote:

If he really was going to retire in the spring dont you find it odd that the administration would sack him now instead of waiting a couple more months for him to go on his own? "Something is rotten in the state of denmark...."

It depends on his behavior, really. If he was becoming a significant problem then there would be clear reason to relieve him of command prior to retirement. I mean, this isn't just a political thing either, it happens in the business world and the military itself.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

chaos0xomega wrote:
Except the duly elected officials are the cause of most of the problems, and the voters can only do something about it during election years.

That's quite the sweeping statement, considering that running the military isn't very much like the herding of cats that is democratic politics.

 AustonT wrote:
GEN Mattis is the undisputed living avatar of war. He is my personal hero, and I despise jarheads with a passion reserved for inter-service rivalry and crying babies.
.

For all you civilians to understand how big a thing Auston saying this is, you have to get Marines fairly drunk to admit that George S. Patton was a "Decent guy in a scrap" (don't even speak to me about Douglas MacArthur)

Dang... I think I get the picture.

I know more than a few Marines that think Patton was worth a damn so I'm not sure if thats valid. I think itd be more like getting a Marine to say "The Air Force is good for something other than delivering mail." (Colonel Boyd notwithstanding of course, I swear i've never seen a Marine with a positive opinion of the USAF in my life)

General Mattis is worth 10,000 lesser men.

I'm pretty disgusted that he was replaced, even more so with the manner in which it was done.

chaos0xomega wrote:

 AustonT wrote:
GEN Mattis is the undisputed living avatar of war. He is my personal hero, and I dispise jarheads with a passion reserved for interservice rivalry and crying babies.
The fact that no one even gave him a courtesy ring is probably the biggest surprise to me. Even McCrystal got a phone call and he openly dispised Obama (and the feeling was mutual I'm sure).

I think Boyd has the honor of being the avatar of war considering he taught the Marines the art of maneuver warfare... the Army to a lesser extent too, though they'll never fess up to it. Not bad for an air Force fighter pilot, eh?

Col Boyd are dead.

 AustonT wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:

 AustonT wrote:
GEN Mattis is the undisputed living avatar of war. He is my personal hero, and I dispise jarheads with a passion reserved for interservice rivalry and crying babies.
The fact that no one even gave him a courtesy ring is probably the biggest surprise to me. Even McCrystal got a phone call and he openly dispised Obama (and the feeling was mutual I'm sure).

I think Boyd has the honor of being the avatar of war considering he taught the Marines the art of maneuver warfare... the Army to a lesser extent too, though they'll never fess up to it. Not bad for an air Force fighter pilot, eh?

Col Boyd are dead.

And your point? The man revolutionized warfare and is probably the most important military theorist and philosopher of war of our time, if not all time.

You missed the word "living".

DOH!!!! ><

Reading comprehension megafail.

I figured you'd get it.

Maybe he wasn't willing to make public comments about the shocking and unnecessary lethality of the 5.56.

 Seaward wrote:
Maybe he wasn't willing to make public comments about the shocking and unnecessary lethality of the 5.56.

McChrystal retired in 2010.

Geez, Doesnt obama know that when you break up with someone you ateast give them a text message.

Huh. Even I know who this guy is. Always struck me as the type of guy you want in charge of your military. Also, he's highly quotable. Here are my favourites of his:

"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."

"I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you feth with me, I’ll kill you all."

"None of the widely touted new technologies and weapons systems would have helped me in the last three years in Iraq and Afghanistan. But I could have used cultural training and language training. I could have used more products from American universities who understood the world does not revolve around America and who embrace coalitions and allies for all of the strengths that they bring us."

 azazel the cat wrote:
Huh. Even I know who this guy is. Always struck me as the type of guy you want in charge of your military. Also, he's highly quotable. Here are my favourites of his:

"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."

"I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you feth with me, I’ll kill you all."

"None of the widely touted new technologies and weapons systems would have helped me in the last three years in Iraq and Afghanistan. But I could have used cultural training and language training. I could have used more products from American universities who understood the world does not revolve around America and who embrace coalitions and allies for all of the strengths that they bring us."

Those are some classics, particularly the middle one.

You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling.

For the mission's sake, for our country's sake, and the sake of the men who carried the Division's colors in past battles — "who fought for life and never lost their nerve" — carry out your mission and keep your honor clean. Demonstrate to the world there is “No Better Friend — No Worse Enemy” than a US Marine.

And of course the greatest insight in modern US military history:
Power point makes us stupid.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:


And of course the greatest insight in modern US military history:
Power point makes us stupid.

This endeared him to me when I first saw that .

I wonder where he would go next?

Dare I say... politics?

I'd vote for him, but the General gives 0 feths for politics.

I'd vote for him, which I'm pretty sure I said before this election.

Just because he isn't CGCENTCOM doesn't mean he's leaving the Corps. This could easily go from insult to honest mistake if say Obama's intent was to install Mattis as the Commandant; which lets go ahead and say is not the case. GEN Amos has another 2 years as CMC so the only place GEN Mattis can go is down from a Combatant Command. He's probably super pissed.

Our Pres certainly hasn't done a lot to endear himself to his troops. This isn't going to help.

Wait I lied I guess he's retiring in March to go strangle political correctness in a quiet suburb of Miami.

 AustonT wrote:
I'd vote for him, which I'm pretty sure I said before this election.

Just because he isn't CGCENTCOM doesn't mean he's leaving the Corps. This could easily go from insult to honest mistake if say Obama's intent was to install Mattis as the Commandant; which lets go ahead and say is not the case. GEN Amos has another 2 years as CMC so the only place GEN Mattis can go is down from a Combatant Command. He's probably super pissed.

There was a rumor he's up for SACEUR but I thought Gen Allen was in line for that job...

 dogma wrote:


This isn't exactly the first time that high-ranking military office has been relieved of command for political, or administrative reasons.

Patton could tell you all about it

Am I the only one who thinks we aren't getting the whole story here?

 NuggzTheNinja wrote:
This is what happens when Americans start voting for whoever will give them the biggest entitlement handout. Sad, really.

Hey Mr. Limbaugh, didn't see you come in!

djones520 wrote:Our Pres certainly hasn't done a lot to endear himself to his troops. This isn't going to help.

Good thing he doesn't need to, then.

juraigamer wrote:Am I the only one who thinks we aren't getting the whole story here?

Of course not, he could be nominated to take the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in October for all we know.

azazel the cat wrote:

djones520 wrote:Our Pres certainly hasn't done a lot to endear himself to his troops. This isn't going to help.

Good thing he doesn't need to, then.

When it comes to the rank and file that's certainly true, but the POTUS is rather dependent on a working relationship with his top two dozen or so flag officers, whom he seems to really have a hard time getting along with.

Hopefully Gen. Mattis isn't done yet. But on a related topic, is Stephen "Godfather" Ferrando still in service or did he retire?

 Zakiriel wrote:
Hopefully Gen. Mattis isn't done yet. But on a related topic, is Stephen "Godfather" Ferrando still in service or did he retire?

I think he got out. Don't quote me on it though. Been awhile since I read the book.