A Marine who hates PowerPoint at CENTCOM? This may cause the thundering herd (the Army) some consternation since it has been said the Army considers PP as important as a good pair of boots and CENTCOM their private bivouac.

I do not know much about the man; he may be a perfectly capable general who will do just fine at CC. However, his flippant comments in 05 about killing (http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/07/08/new_centcom_commander_in_2005_its_fun_to_shoot_some_people) is concerning.

" ... [Y]ou got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil". It was my impression that it wasn't all that long ago in America, 1940s or 1950s maybe?, when it was not looked down upon to slap a woman around for "stepping out of line" like it is today. So we are not exactly talking about stone age behavior here. Even that aside, any time someone in the military, especially a higher up, says "Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot," it leaves a sour taste to say the least.

The 2001 view presented of an over-cautious Brigadier Mattis in "The Only Thing Worth Dying For" is at odds with the aggressive commander dismissing a star regimental CO in 2003. The perception of a slow 2001 rescue response (when Karzai's SF B-team bombed their own position) is worth noting, if there is still a bad vibe between Army SF and the new CENTCOM.

Gen. Mattis has already been scorched by his 'war is a hoot' off camera moment being recorded, and so may avoid the fate of Fallon and McChrystal. However, his 2003 command's willingness to go along with the Jessica Lynch propaganda misdirect. While not a Marine info op, the false Lynch story was a windfall, very much on Corps radar after the Nassariya snafu. Marines do pay attention to things impacting their image, and not wising the marks up is an expert skill, becomes a habit. It kinda reminds me of Gen. McChrystal's willingness to help sell the war with a false Tillman Silver Star narrative.

Someone opined here that a man doesn't get to high rank by telling the whole truth all the time.

with so many general officers holding commissions why are there so few that can be given the highest responsibilities. Why are these services permitted to payroll so many that are not up to "pay grade" responsibility? Do we really need 3 stars to manage shams and slush at the service academies, warden responsibilities at Gitmo, softshoe PR in Afghanistan and Iraq and sultan shoe shining elsewhwere in the Gulf?

After these surge warriors retire what is available?

I'll be interested to see how the relationship between Gens. Mattis and Petraeus develops.

In his last tour as a combat commander, Petraeus had a direct pipeline to the White House that bypassed his nominal Centcom superior, Adm. Fallon, completely. This unusual arrangement did not reappear when Petraeus himself was named to head Centcom.

I've heard Mattis and Petraeus get along well personally, and think alike on many subjects. I hope so.

With all due respect to GEN Mattis...he is very old! There are plenty of Generals within the ranks who would have made great picks. Enough of this round-robin command shuffling. GEN Mattis should have been allowed to continue with his retirement plans. Must be frustrating for younger Generals looking to advance.

On the matter of the same Generals being picked for the most high-profile and most sensitive jobs over and over, I look at it this way-- every Infantryman out there is trained in urban combat and close quarters battle. When Jessica Lynch needs to be pulled out of her hospital bed in the middle of the night and it's got to be done right, who do you call? The NBA free-agency thing just ended. Do you know where players went? Now, even if you tried to avoid knowing, was it still forced upon you where LeBron James went?

Regardless of how narrow the pyramid gets at the top, you always have a top 1% of guys in a certain rank category. Mattis, Petraeus, those guys are your dream team for various reasons. I grew attached to Mattis' approach to things after reading Steven Pressfield's thoughts on him during a visit to Afghanistan (on Pressfield's blog). The question of "who fills out the rest of this dance card" is troublesome, but I don't worry about it. There's only enough overzealous media attention to go around, and it travels a direct line between points Petraeus and Mattis by virtue of their positions. I've heard lots of great things about Michael Oates, who worked for Petraeus at the 101st.

On Killing and On War. That's not a fragment, it's a recommendation. Dr. (LTC) David Grossman wrote THE book on the warped frame of mind you incur by stepping onto the killing fields. "Killing is fun?" "Some people need to be killed?" These statements communicate a series of truths much deeper than those exhibited on the face of the remarks. To get a real understanding of the mentality that projects them, and why it's a good thing that Mattis expresses an empathy for it, read Grossman's stuff.

On 3-stars at Service Academies. This is part of a much larger problem. Yes, you need a 3-star at the Academies. It's a prestige thing, and that prestige should be maintained. Then again, that only serves to put into relief a more problematic circumstance of the whole Academy proposition. You can call it the 'shiny bar syndrome.' I don't know how many times I was told my senior year that "just because you graduate from this place doesn't make your LT bars any shinier than the guy who graduated from ROTC at State U." Now, at $300,000 a head, and living the military lifestyle 24-7-365 times four, does that make any sense? If that really is the case, then Tom Ricks and others are right to remain skeptical of the expense of maintaining these places. However, there's a darker side to that. If that's true, then what are we telling the most highly-motivated, determined, and hardest working 18-year-old college students in the US about the type of organization they've committed themselves to? It would seem that we've said "work yourself to death all you want, attain all the intrinsic rewards you can get, we're not going to allow you an inch of tangible progress."

And then we complain about mediocrity culture and complacency at the top ranks.

You have to wonder what happens to LtGen Allen the CENTCOM DCDR. With Gen Mattis being named as the new CENTCOM Commander, they won’t be able to leave a second Marine there as the Deputy.

One of three options exist:
1. They have promised him another job and will elevate him to 4-star (unlikely)
2. They will give him a lateral 3-star job (maybe)
3. He will be submit papers to retire (probably)

It would have made sense to elevate Allen to command CENTCOM. The staff knows him and there would be continuity. Although as commented earlier - Petraeus has a direct line to the SECDEF and POTUS, keeping Allen at CENTCOM would have kept it simple and clean.

Unfortunately, Allen had to wake up yesterday and know that his boss Petraeus doesn’t have the confidence in him to recommend him for a fourth star.

The good news is that they are finally getting rid of MG Hood, the Chief of Staff; he has harangued the staff, ruined careers and been borderline psychotic since JUL 08. MG Mike Jones will take over as the COS in the coming weeks. This will be good for two reasons:

- One, to provide operational overwatch of the new CENTCOM J3: Rear Adm Kevin Donegan, who will need all the help he can trying to manage ground operations in the CENTCOM AOR; you might remember Donegan as the commander that relieved CAPT Holly Graf.

-Two, Mattis will need help with the AOR, especially if Allen leaves; this makes it even more important to leave Jones at CENTCOM based on his expertise and knowledge of the command and the theater

Way back, when Jim Mattis was a battalion commander, his 1/7 was the first American combat unit into Saudi. As I have it, it wasn't known, as the transports lined up to land, who owned the airfield. Mattis had bothered to load the aircraft tactically, and the troops hit the tarmac tactically, ready for a fight. Once landed--peacefully--Mattis put his troops on the road, a classic movement to contact. I understand there was indeed some minor contact that might have caused the reforming Iraqi Army so much angst that it did not move after redressing its lines inside Kuwait as precursor for a run into Saudi. Later, 1/7 received the honor of being one of the two breaching battalions to jump off into Kuwait.

To anyone who knows about Marine Corps lineage, it is significant that Mattis had command of 1/7.

When he was promoted colonel, Jim pinned on Edson's Eagles, the very same put into service by Merritt "Red Mike" Edson at Guadalcanal and passed down since to the new Marine colonel considered by the previous honoree to best exemplify courage in leadership. (www.dynamisventures.com/pdf/Edson.doc)

The American taxpayer has had a bargain in Jim Mattis. Not a dime of his pay has ever been wasted. He is a courageous leader with more brains than the next three military geniuses combined. He has his name on more flat-out unasterisked successes in both Iraq and Afghanistan than anyone I can think of. It's possible that he hasn't slept since September 11, 2001. With a well-deserved retirement imminent, he has once again answered the call. We should all be ecstatic, because Jim Mattis is, above all, a truth teller who is deeply, often devotedly, respected by all who come in contact with him, not least of which is Hamid Karzai.

I was really hoping to find that the peak behind the curtain after the aborted April 04 assault into Fallujah was provided by Gen. Mattis. But when I went back and looked, it was Gen. Conway squaring the record for the 1st MEF in 2004 (below). Given the happy talk tenor of those times, I'd love to hear an expert read on Conway's retention and eventual promotion to Commandant. I see that Conway was also an early truth-teller about the failure to find WMD, in May 2003.

We can hope that Gen. Mattis at CENTCOM won't become part of a sales pitch for military options in Persia. Confirmation hearings are

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16309-2004Sep12.html
Key General Criticizes April Attack In Fallujah
Abrupt Withdrawal Called Vacillation
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran, September 13, 2004
snip>
"The comments by Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, made shortly after he relinquished command of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force on Sunday, amounted to a stinging broadside against top U.S. military and civilian leaders who ordered the Fallujah invasion and withdrawal."

KUNGFULKODER, you can' t handle the truth.
Mattis is a man this Marine would follow through the gates of Hell. He's a fighter when we need one.