‘RIPPER’ MARINE UNIT SPEARHEAD OF DESERT STORM – Kuwait liberator Mattis for Defense

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WASHINGTON, Dec 2, (Agencies): US Presidentelect Donald Trump said on Thursday night he would nominate retired Marine Corps General James Mattis, known as “Mad Dog” and renowned for his tough talk and battlefield experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, to lead the Pentagon. “We are going to appoint ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis as our secretary of defense,” Trump told a rally in Cincinnati. He said the formal announcement would be made on Monday.

The choice of a seasoned military strategist would be another indication that Trump, a Republican, intends to steer US foreign policy away from Democratic President Barack Obama’s increased reliance on US allies to fight Islamist militants and to help deter Russian and Chinese aggression in Europe and Asia. Mattis is a revered figure in the Marine Corps and known for his distrust of Iran.

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, he led an assault battalion into Kuwait during the first US war with Iraq in 1991.

The Washington Post and CNN reported earlier that Trump had chosen Mattis, but Trump spokesman Jason Miller said earlier on Twitter that “no decision has been made yet with regard to Secretary of Defense.” While the nomination of the 66-year-old Mattis would likely be popular among US forces, it would have to clear a bureaucratic hurdle.

Because he retired only in 2013, Mattis would need the US Congress to waive a requirement that a defense secretary be a civilian for at least seven years before taking the top job at the Pentagon. His impressive combat record, however, may deter some Senate Democrats from trying to block his nomination.

Trump has described Mattis as “a true general’s general.” The New York real estate magnate famously asserted last year: “I know more about ISIS than the generals do.” Mattis, whose past assignments include leading Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East and South Asia, is known for his colorful expressions that unashamedly embrace the job of the US armed forces: fighting wars. In one famous line in 2003 attributed to Mattis, the general told Marines in Iraq: “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”

In a 2016 question-and-answer session, Mattis appeared to be moved by a Marine’s question about how far out he could inflict casualties with his knife hand, known as a “kill-casualty radius.” “Once you get to be a high-ranking officer, the kill-casualty radius is whatever your Marines make it, and by the time I got up to the senior ranks it was hundreds of miles,” he said in a video for the Marine Corps. Still, such tough talk has gotten him in hot water. He was once rebuked for saying in 2005 that “it’s fun to shoot some people.” His talk, however, belies a more thoughtful side. Mattis once said the most important 6 inches in a combat zone was “between your ears.” Now a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Mattis is also a scholar who was praised by then-US Defense Secretary Robert Gates in 2010 as one of the country’s great strategic thinkers.

Mattis reads avidly, frequently quotes history and is proud that he grew up with a large library and no television. After meeting Mattis on Nov 19, Trump described him as a strong, dignified man who persuasively argued against waterboarding, an interrogation tactic that involves pouring water over someone’s face to simulate drowning. Trump had promised during the campaign he would not only revive use of waterboarding, which is widely regarded as torture and was banned under President Barack Obama, but bring back “a hell of a lot worse” if elected.

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