Jim Mattis Quotes

There is no battle space the U.S. Military cannot access. They said we couldn't do Afghanistan. We did it with ease. They said we couldn't do Iraq. We did it with 150 combat casualties in six weeks. We did it so fast we weren't prepared for their collapse. There is nobody we can't take down. The question is, what do you do with the power?

The North Koreans or Chinese may have a million men in uniform but it's about how you perform.

The U.S. Armed Forces are the best trained, best equipped fighting forces in the world.

The U.S. military is the best-trained, most effective fighting force the world has ever known. And the conduct of the vast majority of our service members makes Americans rightfully proud.

The Iraqis expected Americans to be much more competent.

There is nothing that a military machine can do to work a miracle.

The U.S. military is not war weary. Our military draws strength from confronting our enemies when clear policy objectives are set and we are fully resourced for the fight.

The United States has the most capable military in the world. We have the best intelligence agencies.

Our troops are the best in the world. I have absolute confidence in the ability of the troops who are here, or additional troops, to do their part.

What we do have to do, is listen to what Donald Trump's been saying about our military. He's called it a disaster. He says our military can't win anymore. That's a direct insult to every single man and woman who's wearing the uniform today.

The possibility of war increases in direct proportion to the effectiveness of the instruments of war.

A nation fights well in proportion to the amount of men and materials it has. And the other equation is that the individual soldier in that army is a more effective soldier the poorer his standard of living has been in the past.

There are not enough chinamen in the world to stop a fully armed Marine regiment from going where ever they want to go.

The most expensive thing in the world is a second-best military establishment, good but not good enough to win.

Nobody respects a country with a poor army, but everybody respects a country with a good army. I raise my toast to the Finnish army

Our armed forces are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that this will happen before Israel goes under.

Barack Obama's a terrible commander-in-chief. He is gutting our military. It's not an exaggeration.

Air power is the most difficult of military force to measure or even express in precise terms.

The destruction that we have wreaked in the various theaters in which we've been engaged is really quite astonishing. But again, lethality, destruction, killing doesn't seem to achieve our objectives. So, my own sense is that a lack of lethality does not define the core problem.

I've ordered plans to begin for the massive rebuilding of the United States military. Had great support from the Senate. I've had great support from congress, generally. We've pursued this rebuilding in the hopes that we will never have to use this military.

I think under the leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the generals have been reduced to rubble. They have been reduced to a point where it's embarrassing for America.

Air superiority is the ultimate expression of military power.

Every combat is the bloody and destructive measuring of the strength of forces, physical and moral; whoever at the close has the greatest amount of both left is the conqueror.

America's military is the best in the world, but this president [Barack Obama] is hollowing out our military. We need a commander in chief that believes in American exceptionalism again.

America has the mightiest military on the planet, and they didn't get there with entertainers.