US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis resigns

International Desk: US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis will be retiring "with distinction" at the end of February, President Donald Trump announced on Thursday.

Mr Trump tweeted that General Mattis "was a great help to me in getting allies and other countries to pay their share of military obligations".

It comes a day after the president's controversial announcement that all US troops would be withdrawn from Syria.

Mr Trump did not name a successor, but said one would be appointed shortly.
In his resignation letter, Gen Mattis described his views on "treating allies with respect" and using "all the tools of American power to provide for the common defence".

"Because you have the right to have a secretary of defence whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down," Gen Mattis wrote.

Responding to the news, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Gen Mattis "should be proud of the service he has rendered to President [Trump] and our nation".

"He has been in the fight against radical Islam for decades and provided sound and ethical military advice to President Trump," he tweeted.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio said the development was "scary", describing Gen Mattis as "an island of stability amidst the chaos of the Trump administration".

Donald Trump may try to spin James Mattis' departure as a retirement after a lifetime of government service. It's not. This is a protest resignation, plain and simple.

The defence secretary's letter to the president - in which he offers full-throated support for a US network of alliances and calls for a policy of containment of authoritarian rivals - makes that perfectly clear.

The timing of this announcement, just a day after Mr Trump abruptly ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Syria and amid rumours of an Afghanistan pullout, should also dispel any doubt about stark policy differences between the two men.

Gen Mattis had positioned himself as one of the cooler heads throughout the president's term - considered by Democrats and Republicans alike as a "grown-up" in the room and a far cry from the "Mad Dog Mattis" nickname that so enamoured Mr Trump.

From his Pentagon office across the Potomac River from the White House, he managed to stay largely above the fray, frequently assuaging the concerns of US allies unnerved by some of the president's more intemperate statements.

Now that check on the president, one of the last few remaining, is heading out, suggesting turbulent waters ahead.

Source: BBC


risingbd/Dhaka/Dec 21, 2018/Mukul