Editorial

Marine General Eats Justifiable Crow
After Declaring Killing Can Be "Fun"

By: Willliam Finucane

Kill them –have fun.

Crass words from a foxhole? Well, no, not really. This speaker is a Marine general. His name is James N. Mattis, and he’s a lieutenant general.

He wears, in addition to others decorations, a Bronze Star with a combat distinguishing device; he has seen combat action as an infantry man, and not too long ago he was talking at a forum in San Francisco, where he develops better ways to train and equip Marines.

"Actually, it’s a lot of fun to fight," Lt. Gen. Mattis said. "You know, it’s a hell of a hoot… It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up front with you. I like the brawling."

Some listeners have dismissed this as just battle bravado; the tough talk one must give the troops before awarded for close-quarters combat. People in uniform think of this man as the soldier’s soldier.

Right now Lt. Gen. Mattis is the commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va., and deputy commandant for combat development. In the past, Mattis led an assault battalion into Kuwait during the first war in Iraq. During the war in Afghanistan he commanded the First Marine Division during the invasion.

This is no desk general, this is a full bore war general. Sometimes commanders talk tough when he, or she, is about to lead troops into war, with potential death and the heat of action in front of them. But not here. At least not in a forum in San Diego, this is not where that talk works.

Journalists were present.

The words of Gen. Mattis were reported by KNSD-TV in San Diego. An audio of his speech went out over the station’s website. The general was speaking to San Diego and beyond. This was a speech to the kids and moms and grandparents.

And what the general said was that the more killing you do the easier it gets, especially when the enemy personnel are one’s that are considered "fun" to blow away. He explained, "You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap 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."

Well there you go, simple and easy as it gets.

Find yourself a few guys who aren’t really men and you can have a no holds barred massacre, jus as easy as all hell. And know what, the audience laughed and applauded.

Yep, applauded. These were military men, hosted by the Armed Forces Communication and Electronics Association. They were among the best at sophisticated speech that the military could produce. And their sophisticated response was to have a good old time hearing about how much fun it is to gun down such people as the Taliban. Ohhh what fun. Who would ever question those dreams.

Well, some other generals had some different thoughts. They raced to media outlets, saying that Lt.General Mattis is a great combat veteran who knows the horrors of war and could sometimes be a bit overstated in his occasional speeches. For example, General Mike Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, said, "Lieutenant General Mattis often speaks with a great deal of candor. I have counseled him concerning his remarks and he agrees he should have chosen his words more carefully."

To put it another way, Mattis stuck his foot way down his craw and won’t do it again.

Marine General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was up to Mattis to explain what he meant. OK then, General Pace, why don’t you make that happen. Have Mattis address a large audience and explain exactly what he said.

And if his explanation is the same as the first time, someone ought to follow him up at the podium and explain the explanation. Because, as we civilians hear it, Mattis is saying American soldiers can kill with great abandon, pleasure even, just so long as they can rationalize that the enemy has shown by word or deed that they are deficient in some manner, such as a lack of manhood in how they treat women.

No, no, no that’s not what he really said, his backers may try to say. But that doesn’t really matter. He said what he said, and it throws away all the rules of war and basically boils conflict down to simple slaughter. And if that is all America is doing – killing because its fun – then the nation is morally lost.

General Pace said, "All of us who are leaders have a responsibility in our words and our actions to provide the right example all the time for those who look to us for leadership." That is obviously correct.

A military leader should demonstrate that, in some cases, troops must kill, but it is never fun.