"Mad Dog" Mattis and His Bosses Have Some Fun

A few obvious stories to warm up this morning...

So Rumsfeld now says he "has no regrets" about how the Abu Gharib scandal exposed American abuses. And he claims he submitted his resignation, twice, but Bush wouldn't accept it. Well, ya know Donnie, THREE's usually a charm.

Condi's making news in England right out of the starting gate, talking down "the unelected mullahs in Iran" while privately announcing that the U.S. will not support European attempts to present incentives for Iran to drop its nuclear program. But at least she said that a direct military attack is "simply not on the agenda at this point." So in short order, State has been transformed. Diplomacy was for wusses anyways.

In the worst example of foot-in-mouth disease from the last news cycle, Lt. Gen. James Mattis showed his war philosophy on Tuesday in San Diego. At a forum on tactics for fighting the war on terrorism he said, "(i)t's fun to shoot some people." Yesterday the Pentagon said that "Mad Dog" Mattis (as he's lovingly described by his men) has been "counseled" but doesn't currently face any other discipline. Here's more of what he said:

"Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right upfront with you, I like brawling." Mattis added: "You go into Afghanistan, you've got guys who slapped women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

Some might say that by criticizing "Mad Dog," I'm emboldening the enemy. So be it. Morons like this jarhead should be muzzled in public.