HOW GENERAL JAMES "MAD DOG" MATTIS, Trump's selection for Defense Secretary, refused to reinforce Marines vehicles after promising to do so, costing lost lives and limbs

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* NOBODY IS PERFECT, and Trump's supporters know this better than anyone else. 
* But in spite of General Mattis' many qualities, the public deserves to know about his flaws and failures as well. 

* It is quite likely that Trump did not know about the following issues in his background. 
* Even if he did, trying to find a flawless and saintly man to fill the position of Defense Secretary would be an impossible task. 
* Trump tries to pick the best in the bunch - after political and practical considerations, such as avoiding antagonizing the powerful GOP establishment too much - and hope that things will work out in the end.

 

How General Mattis, Trump's chosen Defense Secretary, refused to reinforce vehicles after having promised to do so, Bush Pentagon report says - costing Marines lives and limbs

 

By Debbie Schlussel

 

Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis is at fault for the loss of many Marines’ lives and limbs, according to a BUSH-era Pentagon Inspector General Report citing his neglect, negligence, and what is a clear case of dereliction of duty. He was too busy setting up sweetheart business deals for his future and promoting faulty products on the U.S. Armed Forces. Mattis has Marine blood on his hands, and that alone should disqualify him for the job as Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary.

But you won’t read about this in most of the mainstream media and definitely not the conservative media and talk radio, where Mattis is being uniformly and unanimously lionized and beatified for sainthood . . . sainthood he doesn’t deserve.

 

Mattis has a lot of Marine blood on his hands because he ignored orders and his own commitment to use reinforced vehicles so Marines didn’t get blown to bits, the report says. At the same time, while he could not be bothered to protect the men and women in his charge, Mattis was busy trying to force a faulty blood-testing system on the Marine Corps so he could cash in on it later.
 

Continue reading this, a related article, and watch Video podcast by Michael Savage on how Washington swamp creatures manipulated Trump into phoning Taiwan's government and antagonizing China.

 

The cult of personality surrounding Mattis, despite many disturbing incidents involving his conduct both inside and out of the military over the years, is simply disgusting. There is simply no critical thinking occurring and not much attention to good investigative reporting on about this man and who he really is (just because he gave some past occasional lip service to political incorrectness).

 

Instead, people are raving over this guy as some kind of Patton (who actually won his war, FYI), and some sort of war hero. He is no such thing. Don’t believe the hype.

Mattis has claimed he “paid a price” in Marine lives because of America’s support for Israel. That’s BS, and I’ll address his anti-Israel comments and the whitewash of same by the whoring JINSA (which can be bought for the right price–I have inside info) in a later post.

 

But Mattis’ extremely neglectful behavior regarding the much needed, reinforced MRAPs in Iraq is what cost many Marines their lives (and limbs), and he should have been court-martialed for it. The Marines paid a price for Mattis’ neglect. His behavior on that alone should disqualify this man for the top Pentagon job. He has Marine blood on his hands, and it’s an outrage.

 

And it’s not me saying so: it was the BUSH Pentagon. I’m surprised and disappointed that I’ve seen this well-documented story ONLY in one mainstream media source, and that it basically died.

Retired Marine Corps general James Mattis, currently under consideration for Defense secretary by President-elect Donald Trump, oversaw a key command in 2005 that failed to field urgently needed combat vehicles to Iraq to protect Marines from roadside bombs. 

A 2008 Pentagon inspector general report singled out the Marine Corps Combat Development Command, which Mattis commanded during 2005, for its role in failing to act on an urgent plea for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles to replace vulnerable Humvees. [DS: MRAPs are resistant to IEDs, whereas Humvees are not.] 

The result, USA TODAY found in 2007, was a months-long delay in fielding MRAPs. Those trucks, with their V-shaped hulls that deflect bomb blasts, eventually replaced nearly every Humvee in Iraq and Afghanistan after Defense Secretary Robert Gates made them the Pentagon’s No. 1 priority. Gates did so after reading about their superior protection against roadside bombs to Humvees in USA TODAY. 

Instead of acting on the plea from Marines in 2005, the command under Mattis accepted the Marine Corps commandant’s decision to replace its poorly protected Humvees with better armored ones, the inspector general determined. The request for MRAPs subsequently languished. 

“In reaction, the Marine Corps Combat Development Command stopped processing (the urgent request) for MRAP-type vehicle capability in August 2005,” the inspector general found. 

The inspector general’s report did not mention Mattis by name, just that he was head of the Combat Development Command at the time of the requests. Mattis, the report said, was asked in a March 29, 2005, Marine safety board meeting to review the feasibility of acquiring MRAPs, but that review was never conducted. 

Command officials failed to develop a course of action for the urgent request for MRAPs, seek funding for them or appeal to another Marine Corps body to field them, the inspector general wrote. Finally, the command “did not, as it could and should have in July 2005,” request that Marine commanders take the request to the Joint Chiefs of Staff “to address an immediate and apparent joint warfighter need for an MRAP-type vehicle capability.” 

Mattis said in an interview with the inspector general’s team that he directed that work continue to fulfill the urgent request, but that he did not know why the work was not performed.

Wow, aren’t you glad that Mattis was so “on top” of this? This is the same type of Defense Secretary he will be. Too busy to care about Marine’s lives and limbs. And what he was too busy doing will outrage you. I discuss that later in this post.

 

HUMVEE

Pentagon officials had known long before 2005 about the Humvee’s vulnerabilities. Their flat bottoms transmitted the force of blasts from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) buried in roads directly to the troops they carried. Military officials declared them a “death trap” in such attacks as early as 1994. By 2003, Pentagon analysts were writing to the Joint Chiefs of Staff about the superiority of MRAPs to Humvees. 

One Pentagon analyst complained in an April 29, 2004, email to colleagues that it was “frustrating to see the pictures of burning Humvees while knowing that there are other vehicles out there that would provide more protection.” 

Shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, IEDs became the insurgents’ weapon of choice and No. 1 killer of American troops. 

Yet officials in the Marines and Army resisted MRAPs, hulking, expensive vehicles. Gates changed that in 2007 and launched a $50 billion program to outfit troops in combat with the superior protection offered by MRAPs. 

Mattis is declining all requests for interviews, according Marlon Bateman, a spokesman for the Hoover Institution where Mattis is a fellow. 

The Marines’ urgent need request for MRAPs was submitted in February 2005. “MRAP vehicles will protect Marines, reduce casualties, increase mobility and enhance mission success,” the request read. “Without MRAP, personnel loss rates are likely to continue at their current rate.” 

At a critical meeting on safety in late March 2005, Mattis heard directly from Maj. Roy McGriff III, the Marine who had drafted the request for MRAPs. 

McGriff briefed the plan: Continue to armor Humvees but buy MRAPs as fast as possible and phase out Humvees. Mattis agreed and told the room of generals and lower-ranking officers, “That’s exactly what we’re going to do,” McGriff recalled in 2007.

But he never did it. He’s not a man who keeps his word, even if it means hundreds of his men will die and/or lose their limbs, get disfigured faces, etc.

But the plan, and the urgent need request, died there. By June 10, 2005, a status report on the request said the Marines were holding out for a “future vehicle,” the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle that was more nimble than the MRAP and better protected than the Humvee. 

The Army doesn’t anticipate fielding its first units with the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle until 2019, the Marines a year later. 

As U.S. involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wound down, the value of MRAPs became clear. In 2012, the Pentagon estimated that replacing Humvees with MRAPs saved the lives of as many as 2,000 troops. 

“There is absolutely no question in my mind that thousands of troops are still alive today because they were riding in MRAPs when attacked by IEDs,” Gates said in a statement in 2012. “I have heard that firsthand from countless troops on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Quite simply, MRAPs have saved thousands of lives and limbs.”

And how many hundreds of Marine lives and limbs were lost because of the inaction of James Mattis?

We’ll never know, but you can bet it’s a lot. When I was doing my regular appearance on Larry the Cable Guy’s show on his SiriusXM channel on Friday, Larry (a/k/a Dan Whitney) remarked that General Mattis traveled to see the families of the Marines under his command who died. But that’s the least he could do, since many of them died due to his utter negligence. The man should be behind bars.

So what was “Mad Dog” Mattis busy doing that was so much more important than protecting the lives of his men? Plotting the war? Nope.

General Mattis was busy writing e-mails and having conversations trying to pimp the faulty blood testing of Theranos, a company that he soon made big money off of–joining its board just two months after leaving the Marines. 

I’ll get more into that in a later post, but note that while he was overseeing Marines in Iraq, he had many personal direct conversations with Theranos founder and chief Elizabeth Holmes on how to help her get the Marines to use the defective tests and how to tamp down negative info about the tests at the Pentagon. They clearly had a deal going on, since he joined Theranos’ board very quickly thereafter.

“Mad Dog” Mattis’ priorities are clear: making money off of sweetheart deals before saving American servicemen’s lives.

Um, isn’t that the insider/swamp business Donald Trump said he was going to drain? (If it isn’t, what the heck is?)

With Mattis (and several other appointments), it’s very clear: Donald Trump isn’t draining the swamp. He’s replenishing it.

James Mattis’ incompetence was bad enough when it was just the U.S. Marine Corps. Now, it will be the whole Pentagon. How many more lives of our service men and women will he cost us?

“Mad Dog” Mattis’ behavior should make you mad.

 

Source: DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/83779/gen-james-mattis-cost-marines-lives-limbs-refused-to-reinforce-vehicles-after-being-assigned-promising-to-do-so-bush-pentagon-report-says/#more-83779

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MICHAEL SAVAGE of the Savage Nation Radio Talk Show warns TRUMP against the Washington Military Industrial Complex Swamp manipulating him into baiting China.  Swamp creature Bob Dole behind Trump's call to Taiwan government.
 

 The Savage Nation- Michael Savage -

PODCAST December 6th, 2016 (Full Show)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9zK64bzL84&spfreload=5

The new intolerance in America:

Opposing a political theocracy

by Dr. Michael Savage
12/06/2016

 

We know about the intolerant left, but now something is emerging in the wake of a Trump victory. There’s intolerance on the right. You can’t say anything against decisions Trump is making without facing some type of vitriol from the True Believers.

 

There was a book written about this type of psychological behavior with that exact title, “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements,” by Eric Hoffer. It describes the fanaticism of people who are consumed by one idea without taking a step back to see what’s really going on, and how those dynamics feed a mass movement.

 

That’s what we’re seeing with Trump. I was the only one in the conservative, libertarian sphere who objected to this dangerous act of Trump publicly taking this call from Taiwan.

 

Look who was behind it. Bob Dole now says he was instrumental in making this call happen. Edwin Feulner, former president of the Heritage Foundation was said to have been a crucial figure in setting up the communication channels between Trump and Taipei. These are people who served Reagan, and who supported George Bush’s Middle East policy. Where did that get us? And they’re aided by true believers who don’t have any world experience and are suggesting that any criticism of trump is dangerous place to go.

 

I can’t go along with such groupthink which says everything that Trump is doing is the right thing. I have to come out and analyze these situations in an independent manner. I believe this is a danger to our relationship with China. It’s not the same as reaching out to a dictator in Cuba. Castro had no power to do damage to us the way that China can.

 

It’s not the same as reaching out to Russia to say we can talk about peace in a region. It’s deliberately poking a bear that we need to have a working relationship with. They own trillions of our debt. They’re manipulating currency so we can’t compete with them. But we must negotiate with them like we have been and will do with Russia since Trump was elected.

 

The smart thing to do is to let them save face. We heard it yesterday from people who worked there, people who know the Chinese mindset, people that know how to get things done with China at the bargaining table. And Trump is doing this before he is even in office. To take such an abrupt action. A transition is hard enough with people trying to find their footing, but to complicate things on a global level like this is irresponsible.

 

China is on a war footing. They use all their money to build up their military. They have been at cyberwar with us for many years. They have hacked many of our military secrets. To purposely try to show them up is the exact wrong way to deal with them. But the whole Republican establishment is pointing him in this direction. And anyone who speaks up is ridiculed, excommunicated.

The force of social media is used against them. They just want me to shut up. Well I’m not going to. It’s they who have to reanalyze and step back before criticizing independent critics. The RNC Beltway bandits, the war machine, the military industrial complex must not be allowed to dictate foreign policy.

 

The True Believers must not get swept up in a mass movement where they can see no wrong being done. The last thing we want to do is become as equally intolerant as those on the left that we have come to despise for their intolerance.

 

This Worship of any politician is akin to a fundamentalist religious mindset. To the true believer, either you believe or you don’t believe. Either you believe in God or you don’t believe in God. Either you believer in a politician or you don’t believe in a politician.

 

Here is where the danger resides. Just as there are no absolutes in science, there is no absolutely pure, correct political system. We’ve seen what happens when a dictator insists on imposing his political views on the masses. North Korea, Cuba. To a lesser degree we have seen this under Obama where there is no opposition. We must remain vigilant with the man we elected to insure that our hope for him, and America does not become blind worship.

 

Source:  Michael Savage's columns
http://www.michaelsavage.wnd.com/2016/12/the-new-intolerance-in-america-opposing-a-political-theocracy/ 

 

 

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