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What would you do differently as defense secretary to compensate for this record in which the greatest military in the world, as we are constantly told, doesn't get the job done?

James Mattis

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More quotes by James Mattis

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If in order to kill the enemy you have to kill an innocent, don't take the shot. Don't create more enemies than you take out by some immoral act.
James Mattis
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Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot.
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In a country with millions of people & cars going everywhere, the enemy is going to get a car bomb out there once in a while.
James Mattis
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Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face NOTHING new under the sun.
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We are going to have to continue to keep the pressure on the enemy. There is no room for complacency on this.
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I don't see lethality as the problem. I mean, the lethality of US forces is quite remarkable.
James Mattis
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There are some people who think you have to hate them in order to shoot them. I don't think you do. It's just business.
James Mattis
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Since 9/11 we've been engaged in wars around the world, and General [James] Mattis has been a leading battlefield commander in many of those theaters, including in the April 2004 siege of Fallujah, where the US Marines killed so many people that the municipal soccer stadium in the city had to be turned into a graveyard for the dead.
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I would consider the principal threats to start with Russia. And it would certainly include any nations that are looking to intimidate nations around their periphery, regional nations nearby them, whether it be with weapons of mass destruction or I would call it unusual, unorthodox means of intimidating them.
James Mattis
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The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event. That said, there are some *******s in the world that just need to be shot. There are hunters and there are victims. By your discipline, you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim.
James Mattis
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ISIS is a threat to all civilized nations. America's intention is that the foreign fighters do not survive the fight to return home to North Africa, to Europe, to America, to Asia, to Africa. We're not going to allow them to do so. We're going to stop them there and take apart the caliphate.
James Mattis
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We do not draw red lines unless we intend to carry them out. We have made very clear that we are willing to work with China, and we believe China has tried to be helpful.
James Mattis
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I'm from the American West. We have forest fires out there. And some of the worst forest fires in our history, the most damage were caused when we pulled the fire crews off the line too early. And so we're going to have to continue to keep the pressure on the enemy - ISIS. There's no room for complacency on this.
James Mattis
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I think, broadly speaking, the US military's role - US military activism in various parts of the Islamic world over the past several decades has been counterproductive.
James Mattis
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Be the hunter, not the hunted: Never allow your unit to be caught with its guard down.
James Mattis
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It is mostly a matter of wills. Whose will is going to break first? Ours or the enemy's?
James Mattis
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Treachery has existed as long as there's been warfare, and there's always been a few people that you couldn't trust.
James Mattis
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Yousef Aid Ahmed has memorized the places where his four brothers' bodies laid after they were killed by US marines, he said. The family recounts that November day in 2005 and says it was a massacre of the brothers, along with 20 other people, following a roadside bomb in Haditha.
James Mattis
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I just hope we can find our way back to engaging with one another, arguing strongly with one another, and then going down and having a root beer together or something and - and having a good laugh about it as we work together for the best interests of the next generation of Americans who are going to inherit this country.
James Mattis
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I don't lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.
James Mattis