Gen. Mattis Resigns In Protest — Serious Question: By New Years, Will There Be Any Adults Left — At 1600 Pennsylvania?

I've disagreed regularly, and fundamentally, with Defense Secretary Mattis' views.

But his letter tonight, departing the Administration -- in an extraordinary public rebuke of Donald Trump -- a protest over a myriad of 45-ish non-policies and ill-considered decisions, is the stuff of US history. He's the highest ranking (Four Star) General to ever hold this office. And he clearly disagrees with Trump's scatter-shot approach to China, Russia and now Syria. Here is his operative dissent:

. . . .Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position. . . .

This is ominous. In the short-term, this is a battle tested soldier saying we cannot leave our fellow soldiers behind -- and that is what is happening in South Syria tonight (moreover, Trump is considering leaving Afghanistan abruptly, as well, CNN is reporting). These rash decisions -- without any appreciable planning or forethought -- put our enlisted troops on the ground, and the officers left there, in astonishingly clear peril. I am not trying to be melodramatic.

However, it now sounds a little like a 25^th Amendment process may be hard to implement, because. . . there will be no cabinet level posts still occupied by late January. I am. . . in a word. . . discouraged. The wheels are coming off (and that's before the shutdown non-sense 45 is blustering about).

As a technical house-keeping note, Blogger has ended its support for Open ID commenting. My site, however, will continue to allow commenting without leaving an email. I’ll never require IDs for comments. And I generally let all comments stand (just not spam). Now you know. Onward — feeling grim tonight.

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