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February 3, 2005
"US General Says It is Fun To Shoot Some People"
As soon as I saw the headline, I knew it was LtGen Jim Mattis.
"Actually it's quite fun to fight 'em, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling," said Mattis.The man is harder than woodpecker lips. Comments like this will probably keep him from being Commandant, but don't rule him out for a three or four star field command, even CentCom. Remember, two and a half years ago, he was just a Brigadier General. Interesting that his comments are completely out of context:"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis said during a panel discussion. "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."
In a statement, Gen. Michael Hagee, commander of the Marine Corps, praised Mattis as "one of this country's bravest and most experienced military leaders."
"While I understand that some people may take issue with the comments made by him, I also know he intended to reflect the unfortunate and harsh realities of war," Hagee said.
"I have counseled him concerning his remarks and he agrees he should have chosen his words more carefully," Hagee added.
Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who led troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, made the comments at a conference Tuesday in San Diego.San Diego? Might he have been on board Camp Pendleton? Might he have been talking to some Marines? He says, "I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling," as though he is talking to the troops.
The AP has again taken something entirely out of context. If he was talking to the troops, a thousand dollars says the response was positive. Marines can't stand milquetoast generals. They respond to charisma.
UPDATE: A quick contrast. Quotations by General George S. Patton:
"May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't.
"Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake!"
- General George S. Patton, Jr
(addressing his troops before Operation Overlord, June 5, 1944)"There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wound, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time."
- General George Patton Jr"It is the duty of all commanders to see that their men are fully aware of the many vile deeds perpetrated upon civilization by Germans, and that they attack with the utmost determination, ferocity, and hate." -- General George Patton, Jr.
"I can assure that the Third United States Army will be the greatest Army in American history. We shall be in Berlin ahead of every one. To gain that end, we must have perfect discipline. I shall drive you until hell won't have it, but a pint of sweat is worth a gallon of blood. We are going to kill German bastards -- I would prefer to skin them alive -- but, gentlemen, I fear some of our people at home would accuse me of being too rough."
-General George Patton, Jr.
From Victor Hanson, in The Soul of Battle:
Bradley openly ridiculed Patton's speeches, claiming GIs often laughed at him. In reality, Third Army recruits gradually developed the sense that they were in a personal war with Hitler. Patton yelled at them constantly:I want them [the Germans] to look up and scowl, "Ach! IT'S THE GOD-DAMN THIRD ARMY AND THAT SON-OF-A-BITCH PATTON AGAIN!"
More from Hanson, on the effect of Patton on the enemy:
Since Hitler and his generals, unlike the Americans and the British, felt Patton to be the Americans' most gifted commander, the Anglo-American commanders would create an elaborate ruse of having Patton seem to be preparing a second invasion of France at Calais to the north of the June Normandy landing site. Patton, in essence, would -- and did -- tie down an immense German army to the north, which would wait in vain apprehension for this dashing general to cross from Dover and attempt a characteristically relentless deive through northern Europe on the shortest direct route to Germany.Now, once again, LtGen Mattis' remarks:
"Actually it's quite fun to fight 'em, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling," said Mattis."You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis said during a panel discussion. "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."
UPDATE 2: Boy, they are really piling on. Aljazeera.Net for example has a photo of Abu Ghraib accompanying the story about Mattis. BBC News gets the story wrong and claims Mattis was publicly rebuked. The LA Times sheds a small bit of light on the context of the remarks, though they get his name wrong, so who knows what else they've screwed up:
Lt. Gen. John Mattis made the comments Tuesday at a San Diego forum on tactics in fighting the war on terror. Mattis, who has been known as "Mad Dog Mattis" to troops, is currently commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va.More:
Seated at a long table next to other military commanders, Mattis told about 200 people at the San Diego Convention Center: "Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right upfront with you, I like brawling."More:
Mattis added: "You go into Afghanistan, you've got guys who slapped 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."
His comments were met with laughter and applause from many in the audience of the forum, hosted by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association and the U.S. Naval Institute and sponsored by many top U.S. defense contractors.
As commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, Mattis led that force in their advance on Baghdad in 2003, the longest, fastest move of a division-sized unit in Marine Corps history.
Unmarried, Mattis has served nine tours of duty in the Middle East. [Note from Chester: We used to joke that he would soon be eligible for Iraqi citizenship.]
Mattis' comments came in the context of how to transform the armed forces to fight the war on terror beyond Iraq. He questioned future spending on new forms of air and sea warfare. "Our very dominance of certain forms of warfare have driven the enemy into historic forms of warfare that we have not mastered."
He also said it was "almost embarrassing intellectually" that commanders were looking to unspecified future wars and enemies to reshape the military, rather than to the insurgents it now faces in the Middle East.
"Don't patronize this enemy," he said of insurgents. "They mean business. They mean every word they say. Don't imagine an enemy somewhere in the future and you're going to transform so you can fight him. They're killing us now. Their will is not broken."
UPDATE 3: If this keeps its momentum, I'll begin to tell stories of my own personal and group interactions with General Mattis. He is truly an amazing individual. I've got at least five or so good sea stories, but will hold off to see how this develops.
UPDATE 4: Oh what the heck, why not toss one out there now? First, a short one:
I was in Egypt in September, 2001, attached to the First Marine Expeditionary Brigade, whose Commanding General was Brigadier General Mattis. We were participating in a training exercise that had taken place every two years since Desert Storm.
I took four or five bulldozers about 20 kilometers out into the desert from the Brigade's base camp, to build a cantonment site for the 1st Tank Battalion over several days. What a great job for a 2nd Lt with only four months in the fleet! It was me, 7 Marines and Seabees, and two sections of the tank battalion's scout platoon for security -- also led by another 2nd Lt -- alone, unafraid, and unsupervised. Awesome.
The main reason why we were alone is because the Egyptians were being rather difficult about US personnel leaving our little part of their massive desert base. They were restricting traffic, requiring passes that were in short supply, etc. So we had to go out and stay with just one visit a day from the tank battalion for resupply purposes.
On the third day, the tank battalion CO came out to check our progress. He said that General Mattis had just met with the Egyptians and told them that if they didn't quit playing their chickens*** games that he would backload the ships and take his F-18s and go home.
Remarkably, the Egyptians' attitudes improved dramatically overnight.
[Apologies to MOC (Mom of Chester) for the exceptional profanity in this post. Incidentally, I was once in a meeting of officers, prior to deployment to Kuwait, in which then-Major General Mattis spoke again. He mentioned that he had promised his mother that he would not curse so much . . .]
UPDATE 5: Not a single mention of this story in the Early Bird this morning. It has either died, or is unimportant. Interestinly, the Early Bird covered the controversial comments of LtGen Boykin pretty closely.
UPDATE 6: Welcome Chrenkoff readers. Another Gen Mattis story on the morrow.
UPDATE 7: Here's the next story.
In January of 2003, several of my battalion's officers and I attended a "rock-drill" exercise at Camp Pendleton. This was to simulate all of the actions by battalion-sized units in the first 96 hours of the invasion of Iraq. The moniker rock-drill I believe refers to the fact that each unit has a number of rocks to signify its forces. We actually used legos.
The event was held on a large asphalt landing zone in the middle of nowhere on Camp Pendleton. Begin an engineer, and from the FSSG, my battalion's own participation was minimal, so I mainly got to watch.
A crew of enlisted Marines had drawn relevant terrain features and phase lines in chalk on the asphalt. The regimental COs from 1st, 5th, and 7th Marines and their staffs were present, as were their subordinate battalion commanders.
To appreciate this story you must learn the term "OPT" or Operational Planning Team. It is a small group used to plan an operation. OPT is also used as a verb: " We need to OPT this, before we make our minds up." Etc.
I got to watch while General Mattis put his regimental commanders through their paces. Each part of the invasion, or specific terrain had a specific name. For example, the "Opening Gambit" described the destruction of the Iraqi 52nd Mechanized Infantry Division by 5th and 7th Marines. One particular Gas-Oil Separator Plant which was to be seized before Saddam could torch it was called "the Crown Jewels."
Gen Mattis began a series of socratic questioning to his regimental commanders, pausing every little while to offer an observation about battlespace geometry and the coordination of fires between varying units.
One exchange went like this (name of commander changed):
Gen Mattis: Bob, how big did you say our force at XX will be?
Regt CO: It's a reinforced company, sir.
Gen Mattis: [looks to his intel officer] How big is the enemy force there?
Intel officer: It's a mechanized brigade sir.
Gen Mattis: [back to Regt CO] So you're telling me we're putting one reinforced company against a mechanized brigade?
At this point, the Regt CO turned and looked at his XO, who turned and looked at their operations officer. The operations officer looked back, then bowed his head. The Regt CO looked back to Gen Mattis and said:
"Sir, we're going to OPT the dogs**t out of this."
This was a very amusing exchange to watch.
UPDATE 8: All new updates to this post will be as separate posts in my blog. About to make one now. Thanks for reading!
Posted by Chester at February 3, 2005 6:37 PM
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