C.H.A.O.S. on U.S. Capitol Chaos – Richland’s James Mattis Speaks
Colonel Has An Outstanding Solution, or CHAOS, is the call sign given to Richland's James Mattis by the men under his command when he led the 7th Marine Regiment in the mid-1990s. His 2019 book, "Call Sign Chaos - Learning to Lead" is a fascinating read and a New York Times Best Seller. It's about lessons learned in his 43 years of military service, the importance of trusting and honoring friends and allies, his experience in major leadership roles and the danger of short-sighted thinking on the global stage. Mr. Mattis is arguably the most prominent Tri-Citian living today.
A decorated Marine General, hometown hero and the first Secretary of Defense in the Trump administration, Mattis resigned from his Cabinet position in December 2018 after he clashed with Trump over the president's plans to prematurely declare victory against the Islamic State and withdraw American troops from Syria.
After leaving the administration, aside from an occasional harmless needle, Mattis kept his thoughts on the president largely to himself. It wasn't until last summer, after the president's militaristic response to nationwide protests following the death of an unarmed Black man in police custody, that Mattis finally spoke out.
Yesterday he decided to say something again, this time taking the commander-in-chief and his enablers to task, releasing a statement:
“His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice. Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump. Our Constitution and our Republic will overcome this stain and We the People will come together again in our never-ending effort to form a more perfect Union, while Mr. Trump will deservedly be left a man without a country."