Mattis Says He Served ‘as Long as I Could' by John Wagner and Karen DeYoung – Washington Post
Former defense secretary Jim Mattis, who resigned last year after clashing with President Trump, says in a new book excerpt that “I did as well as I could for as long as I could” and warns of the dangers of a leader who is not committed to working with allies.
Mattis, who announced his resignation in December after Trump shocked American allies and overruled his advisers by announcing a withdrawal from Syria, writes in his book that he decided to depart “when my concrete solutions and strategic advice, especially keeping faith with our allies, no longer resonated.”
Although Mattis’s views were no secret when he served in Trump’s Cabinet, he had resolutely maintained near total public silence since resigning eight months ago.
The immediate cause of his departure was a Trump tweet ordering an abrupt, complete military withdrawal from Syria, but Mattis was at odds with the president’s views and actions on a number of issues and offended by what he saw as Trump’s disregard of longtime U.S. alliances…