Retired U.S. Army Lt. General William “Jerry” Boykin is applauding President-Elect Donald Trump’s selection of retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis to be the next Secretary of Defense and believes Mattis will do an excellent job of restoring the military to its original purpose and moving it away from the giant social experiment its become during the Obama years.
Boykin, who served 36 years, many of them in special operations, sees Trump and Mattis as kindred spirits in that they both despise political correctness. Mattis, known as “Mad Dog” and “Chaos” during his years in uniform comes to the confirmation process with a sterling reputation as a military scholar and leader and for speaking his mind bluntly.
“I think what Donald Trump was looking for was somebody who would send a very strong message to our military, to the people in the ranks of our military that we are going to get back to a focus on what the military’s mission is. And this is plain and simple to win the nation’s wars. I think Mattis sends that signal. It’s a very good choice. I’m excited about it,” said Boykin.
When asked how Mattis would tackle priorities like ISIS or strengthening the military, Boykin says the most urgent priority is something else.
“I think his top priority will be restoring the warrior ethos here. We’ve been plagued by various social experiments for the entire eight years Obama has been out commander-in-chief. It has created a huge morale problem. It has reduced our readiness. It has made our ability to win the nation’s wars questionable,” said Boykin.
Boykin says there are limits to what Mattis can do to reverse the social engineering implemented in the military during the Obama years.
“There are some things that he cannot roll back. What he can do is put an end to all the wasted training time that is associated with every social experiment,” said Boykin.
“For example, when you allow transgenders to serve in the military, there is a training program that goes with that. Every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine and Coastguardsman has to go through hours and hours of that training. What does that do? It causes them to have to give up something in their training program,” said Boykin.
He points to January’s incident in the Persian Gulf, in which Iran took American sailors prisoner, took video of them on their knees and forced the commanding officer to apologize. The U.S. later apologized and even thanked Iran for it’s hospitality of our personnel.
“That’s not acceptable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The problem was they didn’t get that kind of training. What they did get was diversity and inclusion and tolerance and white privilege and all those things that go with social experiments and they contribute nothing to the ability to fight and win the nation’s wars,” said Boykin.
Boykin is confident Mattis can handle the job of running a massive organization like the Department of Defense. And while Boykin, strongly prefers civilian leadership at the Pentagon, he says we need Mattis right now.
“I fully endorse civilian control of the military. It’s a fundamental principle to our constitutional republic. We all believe in that. But these are extreme circumstances. These are extreme situations we find ourselves in now,” said Boykin.
“So in this situation, I am comfortable with it. I would not want it to be the norm. But again, we’re not in a normal situation or circumstance,” said Boykin.
