U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis quits

[anon29537550]

@Kilkrazy

After the departure of Mattis, Trump’s “administration”, to use the word loosely, will consist almost entirely of true believers, incompetents, grifters, family members and other hangers-on, and quite a few empty chairs.

It will be hard to tell which category does the worst job.

True enough, but very safe bet the “empty chair” category will do the best (or least worst) job!

[VoxInSpatium]

@anon21100188

I think he’s what appears to be: a very nearly illiterate man in cognitive decline with almost no knowledge of history or science or culture, no attention span, and no ability to grasp complex concepts beyond what he likes or doesn’t like in that moment.

Something about this has a familiar ring to it . . .

Unfortunately, in this movie, the lights don’t come on again after a couple of hours, reminding everybody that it was all just a light hearted diversion.

[Brainspore]

@anon21100188

I don’t think Trump’s inteptitude is an act

If it ever turns out otherwise Andy Kaufman’s ghost owes him a trophy.

[navarro]

still, let’s recall that stalin killed millions of his fellow soviets by instilling enough fear in his fellow soviets to go about the process of killing millions. stalin45 would have had mattis brought up before judge vasily guiliani so he could plead guilty to anti-drumpfian behavior after he had been physically and emotionally tortured.

not that i’d say things are great but still . . . have some perspective.

[Espresso]

Is he a master grifter? Yes.
Is he capable of fantasizing about being a dictator (the best, the fairest, not cruel at all!)? I think so.
Is he able to apply his grifting talent toward that end? I think so. Doing it already? Debatable.

I think that’s all it takes. No nuanced understanding of history or anything else required.

You might be right and there’s no long con on that grand scale, but I don’t think it’s impossible at all.

[RickMycroft]

Factbox: Outgoing Pentagon chief Mattis was often at odds with Trump

[aluchko]

@anon73430903

The “moderate rebels” backed by the US in Syria are closely connected to al-Qaeda, which blows a rather large hole in the “we’re fighting terrorism” justification.

The Democratic Federation of Northern Syria is a secular, libertarian socialist controlled region. They are the opposite of al-Qaeda. They are also about to be invaded by Turkey.

Those aren’t Syrian rebels, they’re Kurdish separatists.

The moderate rebels that everyone rooted for at the start were Arab Syrians who could legitimately win the civil war and form a Democratic government for all Syria.

The Kurds don’t want to rule Syria, they want self-autonomy, the dream is an independent Kurdistan but they’d probably be happy with an antonymous region in Syria.

Turkey wants to invade them because the last thing Turkey wants is an example for their own Kurdish separatists.

Syria (and Russian) wants to invade them once ISIS is finished since no one wants to have their country split up.

The US was the only real player left who cared about the fate of the Kurds, this could be very bad news for the Kurds.

Kurdistan

[aluchko]

It’s not a question of whether the Syrian War is good or bad. It’s a question of how he made his decision.

This is a war we’re talking about. Staying means that people die, leaving also means that people die. And whether you stay or go probably affects the government in a fundamental way for several generations afterwards.

It’s not obvious which answer leaves to fewer deaths, nor is it obvious what course of action leads to better long term consequences. What is obvious is this isn’t the kind of decision you reach on a whim after consulting literally nobody who has a clue.

Trump has certainly caused a few deaths screwing with health care but that’s not really Mattis’s thing. This is the first time Trump has gone in Mattis’s department and done one of his spur of the moment decisions that might legitimately kill a few tens of thousands of people.

[tsath]

The Kurds are not connected to the Islamists in any way.

[tsath]

They are also the only actually democratic faction involved in the war and the most progressive on women’s issues. The Persians, Arabs and Turks all periodically attempt genocide against the Kurds.

[muser]

@anon21100188

underestimated him badly by believing those skills were not enough to carry him to this office

It’s not clear those skills were enough to get him this far. He seems to have had a very smart, powerful, cunning, dictator with almost unlimited resources manipulating him and the US populace from behind the scenes. Trump may have been on stage, but he didn’t write the script. When he’s left to his own devices, he seems quite good at bungling things.

[Asdfasdf1]

Drumpf has reasons for his decision.

1. He thinks by withdrawing troops he can divert money that went to supporting them to building his asinine wall.
2. He thinks the Democrats will take his job and the Congress next election, and like the ill-mannered spoiled brat he is who would rather break toys than see someone else play with them, he wants to set up a booby trap for them.
3. He is under order from his puppet master/lover Putin.
4. He lacks empathy.
5. He’s a mindless dickhead who “reasons” at the level of a concussed duckling.

Yes, he has his reasons, and not a damn one of them would even occur to anyone who really is fit to even set foot in the Oval Office, much less occupy the chair.

[Wanderfound]

Interesting article here:

Bolton’s Expansion of Syria War Totally Backfired

Bolton’s revised policy led to broad and public articulation by the State Department’s envoy on Syria, Ambassador Jim Jeffrey. But officials said Jeffrey was implementing what he thought was a policy Trump endorsed. “The president wants us in Syria until [Iran’s withdrawal] and the other conditions are met,” he said in late September.

“In Syria,” added Brian Hook, the State Department’s Special Representative for Iran, “we have three goals. It’s to defeat ISIS, it’s to remove all forces under Iranian control from Syria, and to advance an irreversible political process under UN Security Council Resolution 2231.”

“Bolton and Jeffrey repeatedly said U.S. forces are in Syria to counter Iran; the Defense Department never defined the mission that way. It was always about defeating ISIS,” a senior administration official said. “They were adamant about countering Iran, but the president never signed off on that mission.”

TLDR: Bolton wanted a permanent US presence in Syria in order to aid his goal of provoking war with Iran. Trump pulled out because Erdogan threatened to invade even if the US troops were still there.

[FGD135]

Bolton could be next, then.

[TobinL]

so not all a bad thing then?

[navarro]

goo goo g’joob

[philbin1]

They do. There’s that Arkansan bitch, and Rush and Sean and Steve Ducey and Steven Miller and Mr. and Mrs. Blah Blah and the ghost of Ronnie Raygun dancing with his demons in the Rose Garden. It’s a party at the end of the world.

[philbin1]

He doesn’t want to get any greasier.

[anon73430903]

@aluchko

Those aren’t Syrian rebels, they’re Kurdish separatists.

@tsath

The Kurds are not connected to the Islamists in any way.

see my above comment

@anon73430903

You are right, but I expect that certain other people would leap at the opportunity to lie and say that the DFNS are Salafist terrorists.

@aluchko

The US was the only real player left who cared about the fate of the Kurds, this could be very bad news for the Kurds.

The US government only cared after every other faction they supported was defeated, and Trump stopped ‘caring’ after Erdogan said he wanted to invade.

The US troops in the DFNS have a different opinion though.

There is also a break between American soldiers on the ground and the policy makers in Washington. The soldiers who interact with YPJ-YPG fighters regularly are more fully supportive of their Kurdish allies, and even began wearing patches with the YPG symbol on their American uniforms.[26] When officials heard of this development, however, the U.S soldiers were ordered to remove the patches. Unlike the soldiers, U.S officials see the YPJ-YPG as “proxies”[26] rather than allies.

@aluchko

Turkey wants to invade them because the last thing Turkey wants is an example for their own Kurdish separatists.

Iraqi Kurdistan don’t want the DFNS to succeed for similar reasons. Communalism is scary to those who are in a more traditional form of government. Iraqi Kurdistan have banned the same faction as is currently the majority in the DFNS, admittedly this happened before Abdullah Öcalan had a change of opinion away from Marxism-Leninism.

[anon61221983]

@Mister44

it is above laws and government because the purpose is to generally destroy the laws and government - or take over them

Um… no. Not really. There is a whole set of rules known as Geneva’s convention, which combatants are expected to abide by, which includes stuff like no genocide, no killing civilians, treat POWs well, etc. War has always had rules and laws, because it’s precisely about empires or nation-states going to war against each other.