First it was the Republican establishment. Then it was the party leadership. Then it was…. any notable Republican. Then it was Robert Mueller. Now it’s former Defense Secretary James Mattis a callowed nation hopes can do the trick. Somebody with stature please pummel our bully and his gang of stooges for us. It’s just awful to keep having our lunch money taken in front of everybody. Shameful, degrading, a daily trauma. It’s like Back to The Future; Biff needs a fateful roundhouse to reshape our destiny. But can we rely on Mattis to deliver the blow that the others have refused to throw? That’s doubtful.
After a stretch of hibernation since resigning with less than an exclamation point as leader of the Pentagon, Mattis has a book on the way, Call Sign Chaos, which is to say he will be hitting the talk circuit to promote it. Since it’s doubtful the tome’s publishers were interested in paying seven figures for a tribute to Trump abasements, there exists a presumption the author is going to be taking el jefe to task. However, if an excerpt from the book, offered as an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal the other day, is any indication, Mad Dog’s bark won’t be much bigger than the nibble he was barely able to muster when Trump paraded him around as one of “my Generals.” At this rate he may not even earn a PM mention on the insulter-in-chief’s Twitter feed, let alone an AM tweet storm reserved for enemies du jour.
In fact, it’s fair to wonder whether Trump won’t thank Mattis for his observations, which ultimately merely offer up the false equivalence trope of emerging US tribalism without even a mention of the President by name. “We are dividing into hostile tribes,” bemoans Mattis, “cheering against each other, fueled by emotion and a mutual disdain that jeopardizes our future, instead of rediscovering our common ground and finding solutions.” Both sides do it. Really?! We can get that from Hugh Hewitt.
No doubt, like so many of those who could give Trump a black eye, Mattis feels a brawl with President low road is beneath his station. Moreover, it’s clear from the self-congratulations the General lays on with a ladle rather than a brush – after all, he could have stayed retired with a family he had long neglected… but for duty blah, blah, blah – that he feels no guilt whatsoever for signing on with a boss who was fundamentally at odds with his entire worldview. Mattis assures us a good Marine does his homework, but apparently the general moved right past Trump’s MAGA stump gibberish before accepting his Cabinet position. Even a cursory glance at the Trump campaign’s trail of fears would have promoted the conclusion carrying out his Sec./Def. duties required complete refutation of his employer’s positions. The record shows Mattis succeeded too well for too long to be viewed as much more than just another ship jumper looking to proactively aerate a reputation tarnished by Trump…. as all inevitably are.
Trump’s ventures abroad for meetings with NATO allies have been one embarrassment after the other from the start. Everything from siding with Putin in Helsinki to a constant and shrill fixation on “unfair” imbalances in defense spending has framed the US less as a leader than an obstacle to Western collective security. Trump being Trump, Mattis was dragged into many an incident as window dressing for outrages he surely abhorred, but said little publicly, and even less privately if the reporting is accurate. When it counted, as the damage was happening, Mattis was keeping his head down, apparently figuring there were bigger fish to fry. Now we expect him to make a stand?
When history looks back at this dark passage and identifies Trump’s enablers, no picture will speak more words than a conference table occupied almost entirely by white male sycophants dutifully absorbing the nonsensical “achievements” he endlessly extols. And seated next to his greatness for the first two plus years, like a prized Christmas ornament, was his favorite general. Granted, Mattis looked like he had swallowed paint thinner throughout the charades, but his seat assignment never changed. Moreover, when he could have offered some candid frankness in a froth of disgusting servile repetition, he took a pass. The image, however, will endure.
Finally, there is perhaps nothing worse in the always expanding litany of Trump outrages than his seditiously overt efforts to recruit the armed services into his wretched core, turning what once was America’s pride and joy symbol of enduring civilian control of our military into ominous red flags any democrat should worry about. The Commander-In-Chief’s transformation of morale boosts for the troops into MAGA rallies has been going on from the start. Navy, Air Force, Army…. Boy Scouts…. no group has been exempted.
Whether it be caustic and dishonest criticisms of his predecessors, or lies about his role in securing advanced weaponry, Trump has only had one gear when addressing those in uniform… self-serving. Mattis never made much of a public peep about it, though most all confirm he was not happy and made clear within the Pentagon, from the top down, partisanship within the ranks would not be tolerated. Yet and still, as far as confronting Trump with the unacceptability of his behavior, or using his platform to accentuate how out of line the president was acting, the record shows Mattis wanting.
To be fair, and accurate, Mattis’ career has been exemplary; he is respected and admired by virtually all who have dealt with him as a modest, intelligent and honorable straight shooter. Moreover, there is unquestioned validity to the argument that, in democracies the military must always err on the side of the elected, even if they undermine such deference. Indeed, it may be that Mattis is a crucible to the crossroads we reached long ago and still ponder.
Further, it may not be fair to expect him to abandon a set of principles that views Trumpism more as a test of our system’s fortitude than an imminent threat to it. One could even be convinced to admire Mattis for eating Trump’s crap sandwich for as long as he did out of duty he felt for his nation. But let’s be clear about one thing the intelligent and clear-eyed have known since January of 2017, this President is a hideous aberration, a detestable outlier of incompetence and indifference to the most minimum of obligations his office requires. That includes his duties as Commander-In-Chief. There were plenty of very “honorable” German Generals within the Reich, who prosecuted unfathomable calamity.
At the end of the day, history will issue it’s own opinion about the reticence of Mattis to confront Trump directly, with all the ugliness that entails. Like they’re saying right now down in Florida as Dorian churns away, hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Or put a slightly darker way: the road to ruin contains too many bystanders who could help direct traffic. Who knows, maybe even the stray mad dog. BC