Semper Fi, Gen. Mattis

Michael Ledeen:
General James Mattis has left Central Command, as of Friday, and it’s just as well, since he is entirely the wrong man to preside over our retreat from Afghanistan, and in all likelihood from the broader region. Mattis, the most beloved Marine officer of this generation, is an attack dog, our Patton (like Patton, he is a very cultured man who composes poetry in Greek, and his famously sulfuric language may well be, as it was in Patton’s case, a conceit used to bond with his fighters rather than a reflection of his true rhetorical preference).

Barbara Ledeen once sat next to him at dinner and pronounced him one of the most interesting men she had ever met. Which is quite a compliment.

Among my collection of secret documents is a poster design–not even the Marine Corps could actually put it out–featuring a quotation from General Mattis to “Iraqi sheikhs.” It begins “I come in peace, I did not bring artillery,” and it ends “you F**ck with me, I’ll kill you all.”
... 
He had an eloquence that Gen. Patton would appreciate, but not many politicians until they needed him.  He will be missed.

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