Mad Dog needs a muzzle.

James Mattis: Joe Biden Must Eliminate ‘America First’ from U.S. Foreign Policy
Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis declared in an article in Foreign Affairs on Monday that the “America First” foreign policy had damaged national security, and called on Joe Biden to “eliminate ‘America first’” from U.S. strategy.

Mattis resigned in December 2018, citing policy disagreements with the president, who had just ordered a troop drawdown in Syria. In his resignation letter, Mattis said that the U.S. needed to do more to show “respect” to American allies.

In October 2018, then-Secretary Mattis gave a speech in which he said that “when we talk about America first, it’s not America alone.”

Who the fuck ever said that it was, or had to be, you disingenuous Deep State dipshit? But there’s a minor detail the scruple-bereft prick scrupulously neglected to mention, and would probably prefer we all ignore.

In an online column denouncing President Trump’s “America First” policy that includes measures regarding Beijing, ex-Defense Secretary James Mattis did not disclose his affiliation with an organization that fosters international business deals with communist China.

As coauthor with three other writers in a Nov. 23 Foreign Affairs column, Mattis did not mention that he works for the The Cohen Group consulting firm. Nor did he challenge China’s tough talk against U.S. policies regarding Taiwan, nor the strict economic retaliation Beijing levied against Australia.

The Cohen Group is run by another former Defense Secretary. William Cohen, who has been involved with China since 1978, when he went there to meet with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, according to the organization.

Mattis joined The Cohen Group in 2019 as a senior counselor.

So, replace “America first” with “China first” then, eh, Mad Dog? Herschel says:

Oh. I see. Maybe this has something to do with being a sell-out and enemy of the state?

You’re a wee mite off there, my friend. Mattis and “people” like him are by no means enemies of the state. They ARE The State. Which is the whole problem, probably one of our biggest. Herschel’s commentary is minimal, which is of course fine and all. Right away, though, commenter Georgiaboy61 seizes the opportunity to take that ball and run with it, at length.

The decades-long slog to become an officer of flag/general rank selects against the very qualities we are supposed to prize most in our senior military leaders.

Even the good ones find swimming against the tide of group-think, political-correctness, and expediency hard going, and many eventually leave the services prematurely, or find themselves slowly being co-opted into the system, or shunted aside into dead-end assignments without a future.

This struggle to remain true to one’s values while building a career in uniform has always been challenging, but since the spread of Cultural Marxism across American society and into its institutions – including the armed forces – a half century ago, it has become nothing less than a nightmare for traditional Americans.

It has become holy writ in the armed forces – especially to anyone who desires to make a career as a senior enlisted man or officer – that anyone not “on board” with women in combat, diversity, affirmative action, multiculturalism and all the rest of it – that it is a career-ender to transgress against these sacred totems of P.C. Get with the program or get out. It’s been this way since the Tail Hook scandal back in the early1990s, and the trend has only accelerated since then.

Also wrapped up in that particular package is that one must not question the core tenets of interventionism, neo-conservativism/neo-liberalism, globalism and internationalism, nor the institutions and policies thereof – the UN, NATO, the World Bank, IMF, etc. Foreign policy realism, or enlightened national self interest – are dead-and-gone as viable alternatives.

There’s plenty more, of which you should definitely read the all (sorry, no direct comment links provided at the Captain’s joint, but well worth the scroll). Fair Use says I should probably lay off the excerpting right there, but no way can I resist throwing this in as well.

It must always be borne in mind that the higher one rises in the armed forces, either as an officer or senior NCO, the more political it becomes. And no one in the armed forces may be promoted to flag/general officer rank without the “advice and consent” of Congress. Meaning that becoming a general is inherently political, and that if buttering up Congressmen and Senators isn’t to your liking, you probably won’t get past light bird or colonel, no matter how good the rest of your package is.

The late Colonel John Boyd, USAF, a maverick and independent thinker (a true one, not a fake like John McCain), one of our nation’s finest military officers and then one of our finest military theorists and thinkers, was famous as “The Ghetto Colonel” and before that, as the “Mad Major,” or simply as “Genghis John” for his take-no-prisoners approach to his work, life and especially for his treatment of phonies and fakes of all kinds, whom he despised regardless of rank.

Boyd was famous for taking aside young officers with stars in their futures, and sitting them down for a blunt face-to-face talk which started off with something like “Well, tiger, you’re a real blue-flamer and you’re going places…” and ending up with Boyd telling the individual in question, “You’ve reached a fork in the road, you can either be someone, or you can do something – but probably not both.”

What he meant was that if you wanted to perform a real service to the nation, and to your branch and to your colleagues in uniform, you will probably have to forsake reaching high rank, getting rich or becoming widely-known or famous. Getting things done meant stepping on toes, sometimes powerful toes, and ruffling feathers – and if you wanted that, you had to pay the price.

Or, you could take the easy way out and play the games the perfumed princes and courtiers in uniform all played in the Five-Sided-Puzzle-Palace. These are the folks who reap the riches, the rank, the notoriety, and the fame, plus lavish sinecures at Fortune 500 defense firms in retirement.

Boyd refused over his long career to accept anything – compensation, good or service – which even hinted at favoritism, graft, or the like. He and his family lived in a small apartment even as he was promoted into the field grade ranks. Boyd was no respecter of rank when ripping into someone, especially when he thought the target of his ire had behaving stupidly or unethically. He was known to tell generals to their face that they were idiots. Which is probably one reason he made Colonel – O-6 – but not general/flag rank. Boyd was fortunate to get that far; he had made many enemies over his career and they had long memories. Fortunately for him, his work was stellar and he had friends in uniform, too.

The rot and dead wood which infest the senior ranks of the officer corps at present is appalling, but also highly typical of long periods of peace or relative peace. Genuine war-fighters, the kinds of generals and admirals who win battles and win wars, make official Washington nervous and upset the routine functioning of the system. Bureaucrats-in-uniform, or what the late Colonel David Hackworth called “perfumed princes,” are much-preferred in the usual places and by the usual suspects.

All of this, along with Bill Buppert’s spot-on follow-up, jibes perfectly with what my cousin Reggie (career Navy jet-jock, only scant weeks short of retiring at the rank of Captain when he keeled over dead from a heart attack while driving in to work as Argentina Naval attaché a few years ago; CF lifers may remember his posts here as “Regbo” some years back) always told me. Taken as a whole, it highlights more than just one or two enormous obstacles to ever draining the Swamp and putting this country back on the right track again. Which isn’t just worrisome; it’s downright scary.

As for Mattis, it appears I need to dust off the sparingly used “ex Marine” epithet, previously reserved around here mostly for the despicable John Murtha, and start using it again. You former Devil Dogs out there will know what I mean by it, I’m sure.