Our top story at midday edition calling him the closest thing we have to General George Patton Donald Trump announced his choice of retired Marine General James Mattis as his secretary of defense. He is well known in San Diego having led the first Marine division and known as a respected leader but perhaps an overly blunt communicator. A profile of him was published in the San Diego Union Tribune and the author Jen joints me now. Maybe we should get right to the general's nickname. Why is he called Mad Dog? Apparently he does not like that nickname. He prefers his name as chaos. He is called Mad Dog because he is so blunt and he says things that other people might think are over-the-top so that people think he is a Mad Dog personality. And some of the worst fighting in Iraq what kind of success did he have? I know that in 2001 when he led them into Afghanistan it was a big victory because they move all the Marine office ships via helicopter and it went well. He is also involved in the early planning stages of the Falluja battle. You found out that his reputation among the Marines is pretty stellar. He has almost like a cult like following. The possibility of his nomination was announced and social media just blew up. They really respect him for being a warrior and for being a guy of the people. There are so many stories about him trying to take care of his young Marines. One young Marine was freezing and they did not have the proper care and he took off his own gear so that he wasn't wearing a coat. Back in 2005 he ran into some trouble for his comments during a pilot discussion in San Diego. He said he liked brawling and it is fun to shoot some people. Is that the kind of blunt talk we should expect from him? You could almost a hope for it. I think that is going to be the interesting thing to watch. He is so known for his politeness. It will be interesting to see if he tempers that bluntness or not. People are going to -- they said if he stands up and speaks his mind will he survive very long and that new job? Did those comments hurt him professionally? It is an open question. He was unofficially reprimanded at the time. They stood by a but they said he should have tempered his words. Is an open question why he he did not become common on in the Marine Corps. Another controversy that followed him was what happened in Iraq. Because criticism. Can you remind us about that. The two cases were Marines from Camp Pendleton and they were accusing charged with killing civilians improperly. So he ended up giving sentences to some and dismissing charges for some. There was a question if there was undue command influence on the process. He did recommend censure for three Marine officers thing that they failed to fully investigate those cases. It is a mixed bag. Currently retired Marine officers are barred from becoming defense secretaries within seven years of leaving active duty. What would need to happen to James Mattis to be confirmed? Congress would have to allow him to serve because there is a federal statute that calls for seven year gap between active service and somebody becoming secretary of defense. Looks like people are saying that they can't support it. Looks like it is a partisan divide at present. Some people are think there's a reason that we have civilian control of the military and they're not willing to waive this seven-year requirement. Might not be an issue. I was going to ask about that because some people might be concerned about a latter-day General George Patton being the civil leader. What are the critics saying? They are saying that they feel it is an important touchstone of the American government system that we have civilian leadership and civilians think differently than military folks and you need that sort of different experience at the top of the Pentagon. Other people are saying people who have been in combat are going to be the most judicious about when to send other people in the combat. And that he might not necessarily be the guy who was going to put troops into the next war given that he knows how terrible it is. I been speaking with Jen steel. Thank you. Thank you for having us.
President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he will nominate retired Gen. James Mattis, former commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, to be his secretary of defense, making the announcement during a post-election victory rally in Cincinnati.
Mattis, 66, is a Marine Corps general who retired in 2013 after serving as the commander of the U.S. Central Command. Prior to that, Mattis led Marines from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force stationed at Camp Pendleton during the Iraq War. During his tenure in San Diego, he gained a reputation of being outspoken due to comments he made during a forum about shooting Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
His selection raises questions about increased military influence in a job designed to insure civilian control of the armed forces. The concerns revolve around whether a recently retired service member would rely more on military solutions to international problems, rather than a broader, more diplomatic approach.
For Mattis to be confirmed, Congress would first have to approve legislation bypassing a law that bars retired military officers from becoming defense secretary within seven years of leaving active duty.
Mattis has a reputation as a battle-hardened, tough-talking Marine who was entrusted with some of the most challenging commands in the U.S. military. In a tweet Sunday, Trump referred to Mattis by his nickname "Mad Dog" and described him as "A true General's General!"
Mattis would be only the second retired general to serve as defense secretary, the first being George C. Marshall in 1950-51 during the Korean War. Marshall was a much different figure, having previously served as U.S. secretary of state and playing a key role in creating closer ties with western Europe after World War II.
The only previous time an exception was made to the law barring someone from becoming defense secretary within seven years of leaving active duty was for Marshall.
Although his record in combat and his credentials as a senior commander are widely admired, Mattis has little experience in the diplomatic aspects of the job of a secretary of defense.
Richard Fontaine, president of the Center for a New American Security, described Mattis as a defense intellectual and as a military leader who distinguished himself in combat.
"He knows the Middle East, South Asia, NATO and other areas and has evinced both a nuanced approach to the wars we're in and an appreciation for the importance of allies," Fontaine said in an email exchange. "If he were to get the nomination, I suspect that he could attract a number of very talented people to work with him."
But Mattis hasn't been immune to controversy. He was criticized for remarking in 2005 that he enjoyed shooting people. He also drew more recent scrutiny for his involvement with the embattled biotech company Theranos, where he serves on the board.
Born in Pullman, Washington, Mattis enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1969, later earning a history degree from Central Washington University. He was commissioned as an officer in 1972. As a lieutenant colonel, Mattis led an assault battalion into Kuwait during the first U.S. war with Iraq in 1991.
As head of the Central Command from 2010 until his retirement in 2013, he was in charge of both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Mattis commanded the Marines who launched an early amphibious assault into Afghanistan and established a U.S. foothold in the Taliban heartland.
As the first wave of Marines moved toward Kandahar, Mattis declared that, "The Marines have landed, and now we own a piece of Afghanistan."
Two years later, he helped lead the invasion into Iraq in 2003 as the two-star commander of the 1st Marine Division.
In 2005, he raised eyebrows when he told a San Diego forum that it was "fun to shoot some people."
According to a recording of Mattis' remarks, he said, "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 up front with you, I like brawling."
He added, "You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis continued. "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."
Mattis was counselled to choose his words more carefully.
A year later, Mattis came under scrutiny during one of the more high-profile criminal investigations of the Iraq war, the shooting deaths of 24 Iraqis by Marines.
The Iraqis, who included unarmed women and children, were killed by Marines in the town of Haditha after one of their comrades was killed by a roadside bomb. Eight Marines were charged in connection with the killings - four enlisted men were charged with unpremeditated murder and four officers who weren't there at the time were accused of failures in investigating and reporting the deaths.
As commander of the accused Marines' parent unit, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Mattis ultimately dismissed charges against most of the Marines.
As a top Marine general, Mattis pushed for the military to adopt blood-testing technology developed by Theranos.
As reported by The Washington Post , Mattis first met the Theranos founder, Elizabeth A. Holmes, in 2011. A year later, according to emails obtained by The Post, Holmes used her connection to Mattis to pressure him to intervene after a Pentagon official raised concerns that the company was distributing its technology without approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
The emails show within hours after Holmes asked Mattis for help, he forward her email to other military officials asking them "how do we overcome this new obstacle."
Mattis joined Theranos' board the same year he retired. The company, which raised hundreds of millions of dollars on the promise of breakthrough blood-testing technology, was forced to invalidate two years of patients' test results after the reliability of its proprietary blood testing machinery was questioned by internal and government whistleblowers and investigative reporting by The Wall Street Journal.
Associated Press writers Chad Day and Robert Burns contributed to this report.
