Chapter 1: What criticisms did General Mattis have about Trump's war strategy?
Donald Trump was just torched by his former defense secretary, General James Mad Dog Mattis. He served as Donald Trump's defense secretary during Trump's first term from 2017 to 2018. General Mattis, who is a four-star general, says that Donald Trump has no plan at all when it comes to this disastrous war in Iran. General Mattis says it will take at least 8 to 12 years to try to rebuild Iran.
America's relationships with our former allies after Donald Trump eviscerated it by attacking NATO, by attacking our former allies. And General Mattis makes it clear that he believes that this Iranian regime is not going to be toppled. They are not going to crack. and that Donald Trump is utterly failing right now.
I want to show you what General Mattis said when he appeared on PBS's Firing Line with Margaret Hoover. This deserves to get more attention because let me also be clear, In addition to being a four-star retired general, General Mattis served in that region in leadership roles in the Middle East, probably with more experience than any living person today.
First off, after the revolution in 1979 in Iran, General Mattis was in the region. He saw firsthand how the Iranian regime engaged in terrorist attacks throughout the region. He also led troops in the Persian Gulf War, in the war in Afghanistan, as well as the Iraq War. He headed the U.S. Joint Forces Command and the U.S.
Chapter 2: What does General Mattis believe about the Iranian regime's stability?
Central Command from 2010 to 2013. overseeing operations across the Middle East, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. Then he served as Donald Trump's defense secretary. You'll recall that somewhere right around the end of December of 2018, he resigned because he didn't like what he saw Donald Trump doing foreign policy wise.
Then Donald Trump acted like he fired General Mattis, but General Mattis said Nope, I absolutely resign. So let me show you what went down on this PBS program. This first clip I'm going to show you, General Mattis says that he believes that the regime, the Iranian regime, will not fall. that Donald Trump does not have any coherent plans at all, and that we absolutely need allies. We need NATO.
We need to have friends in the world. Otherwise, doing anything internationally, engaging in any wars, it's impossible. And again, this comes at a time where earlier today, earlier yesterday, Donald Trump's been posting attacks on NATO. NATO is a paper tiger, right?
It comes as Doug Burgum, Donald Trump's Interior Secretary, is saying, ah, it seems like the United States right now is much closer to Russia and other countries in Russia's orbit than to NATO. Watch General Mattis eviscerate Donald Trump. Let's play this clip right here.
Chapter 3: How does Trump's foreign policy affect America's allies?
How would you estimate the likelihood of the regime's falling?
I do not believe the regime will fall in the near future. Now, understand, war is fundamentally unpredictable. Fundamentally, that is part of war. So what I'm saying could be completely reversed in 24 hours, but I think it is very unlikely that that regime will fall anytime soon. I think we're going to have to deal with it. So how do you deal with it? I'd suggest that America
has got some of the greatest strengths, our economy, our education system. We have ways of engaging with the world no other country has. And yes, we need a very strong military to defend this idea of a democracy. But at the same time, if we don't use all of our strengths, and there I would point to allies, without them, we're not going to get there.
You say in your memoir, nations with allies thrive. Those without them die. Whether we like it or not, we are part of a world that needs allies. And yet President Trump has said, we don't need anybody. We're the strongest nation in the world. So can the United States succeed in this war without allies other than Israel?
No.
What is your sense of the biggest concerns from our allies right now?
Well, there are many of the same concerns that we hear from our fellow citizens. America is becoming predatory. America is as unreliable. They say one thing and they change.
seven days later or two days later so there's a sense that we are not a reliable security partner right now the first time nato went to war was after we were attacked and one of the countries that lost as many boys per capita fighting alongside us after america was attacked on 9 11 was denmark
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Chapter 4: What is the timeline for rebuilding relationships with allies according to General Mattis?
And Denmark is, of course, the country that owns Greenland. So when you think of a threat against a NATO ally, or when you hear that we're putting tariffs on allies at the same time, we're demanding they increase their defense expenditures, which requires a robust economy. You're seeing a strategic disconnect.
And right now, many of the actions we're taking, unfortunately, mean that we're working against our own strategic outcome at the end. And you can't bring allies on board if they don't trust you. We're going to have to deal with this threat by this aberrant, bizarre, murderous regime in Tehran. And we're going to do it at the end of the day with allies, lots of allies.
More from General Mattis in this powerful interview with PBS right here, where he talks about how it will take at least eight to 12 years to try to repair the wreckage of Donald Trump's wrecking ball to the entire world. And it'll probably be even longer than that. We may not be able to recover, General Mattis says.
And also, he says that Donald Trump is basically a Putin bootlicker and China is benefiting from this as well. Here, play this clip. General Mattis, if we are going to deal with a regime that is in place and we are not going to do it without our allies, is there a method or a mechanism for trust rebuilding? Is there a path forward?
Yeah. And you go to the heart of it right there. There's a saying about trust. It departs on a horse at a gallop. It comes back at a very slow walk. And I get the sense it's going to take us eight to 12 years to restore the levels of trust that the Allies believe that we are once again
someone they can count on we've treated them poorly and i think it's going to take a while to recover but it's going to be by giving our word on something and living up to it and going back to a strategic approach and a good strategy is an appetite suppressant to war it is not an appetite uh increasing uh
tool, because you don't go off and do silly things if you've got a strategy, because it sets priorities and you don't do something. For example, reopen Russian oil, take sanctions off Russian oil, because, you know, that's a key problem for Europe right now. You don't do certain things that end up actually causing you more problems down the road.
So we're going to have to get back to thinking strategically and giving our word and living up to it.
You mentioned easing the sanctions on Russian oil.
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Chapter 5: How does General Mattis view the importance of NATO?
President Zelensky said that that certainly does not help peace and only strengthens Russia's position. It sounds like you agree. How is China reading these actions?
Well, China is benefiting from a lot of this and Russia is benefiting militarily because weapons that could have been given to Ukraine are not being given. They're being used in other places, that sort of thing. Economically, Russia is benefiting. So right now, China and Russia are probably benefiting from this war.
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Chapter 6: What challenges does the U.S. face in dealing with the Iranian regime?
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More from General Mattis right here saying, let's be clear, I've studied this Iranian regime. It is very unlikely that they are going to crack. And also, Donald Trump's purported goals are very muddled and murky. And it's unclear what the hell he even wants.
And when you are engaged in warfare, if you are also a student of warfare, if you study at military academies, having very clearly defined objectives, It seems like an obvious thing to say, though, that that's very important. And from one minute to the next, Donald Trump will be like, all right, we're done.
And on the other hand, like yesterday, he's like, we're going to be sending in thousands and thousands of troops. Remember yesterday? He sent in a huge amount of troops from San Diego, thousands and thousands from the 86th Airborne Division. Heck, they were separately called. And then in addition to other Marine Expeditionary Units that won't even get there until April.
So what the hell is the plan? Here, play this clip. They are not, quote-unquote, not cracking, and they are willing to fight to the end. Is it your understanding, based on what you know of the Iranian regime, that it seems plausible that their will is unbroken?
I think it would be very unlikely that this regime would break right now. But like Hemingway's point about how a man went broke gradually and then suddenly, it is a very fragile regime in terms of its grip, but it's strong enough with its murder
and all they've told for example they've told the iranian parents don't let your sons and daughters demonstrate because we will shoot them we will you we will go after them so no they're not going to go away anywhere right right now i would not think that they're going to break so you've summarized one of your leadership techniques as um and especially on the battlefield as clearly stating the purpose
sparsely outlining the methods that are to be used, and then explaining the desired end state of any mission. So how do you understand, as a civilian now, the Operation Epic Furies' purpose and desired end state?
As you can see, the lady does her homework. Um, the, uh... It's murky. It is murky right now to understand what we in the military call the commander's intent. And we've heard things like unconditional surrender, we will select the next leader. We've heard all sorts of things, frankly, and it's been murky and it's hard to articulate an end state that's achievable.
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