The next head of the Pentagon will be the former Marine general James Mattis. This was announced by the president-elect Donald Trump, who thus expands his team one piece at a time and gets close to completing it, after announcing the appointments of Mnuchin to Treasury and Ross to Commerce.
The highly decorated super-hawk Mattis, nicknamed Mad Dog, will therefore be the next defense secretary. The 66-year-old former general retired from his uniform in 2013 after leading central command, overseeing US military operations in Africa and the Middle East. As announced by Trump, his profile is more that of a war commander than a bureaucrat.
Mattis was another early supporter of The Donald, with whom he shares a certain harshness, especially towards Iran, which he considers "the strongest threat to peace and stability", even more than terrorist groups such as Isis or al-Qaeda. The hottest fronts it will have to deal with at the moment are those of Iraq and Syria.
The next defense secretary will make up the national security summit team together with former general Michael Flynn, chosen as National Security Adivisor, and Republican deputy Mike Pompeo, designated to the CIA. Mattis will need an ad hoc congressional dispensation to serve in the Trump administration, given that a federal law prohibits military personnel who have retired for less than 7 years from leading the Pentagon, but it should be a pure formality.
In the past of the superfalcon, also nicknamed "warrior monk", there is an episode that has caused quite a stir and controversy. After leading US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mattis said: “It's fun to shoot certain people. Go to Afghanistan, where there are men who have been slapping women for 5 years because they weren't wearing headscarves…and it's great fun to shoot them." He and Trump seem made for each other.
