Jim Mattis Quotes
No war is over until the enemy says it's over. We may think it over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote.
Mattis, James, and Bing West. Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead. Random House, 2019.
1st Earl of Beaconsfield. Contrast this statement with that of Neville Chamberlain returning from Munich in 1941. Disraeli had threatened war and forced the Russians to accept all the British demands by diplomatically isolating them first and moving armed troops into position just before the peace conference.
Ironically, the Japanese Government and military were so polarized that it took several days for the authorities to get together and agree on a course of surrender action. The second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki speeded things up.
Santa Ana was, at the time, a captive of Sam Houston.
Chivington led troops to attack hostile Indians. When they arrived at Sand Creek, the most militant young Indian men had left. The others did not want to fight, displayed white flags and wanted to negotiate. Chivington made his famous statement, attacked the Indians and massacred most of them including the ones who were trying to surrender with white flags. See {597566}.
After defeating the Iraqi Army in the field, bush allowed them to keep their arms, did not take Baghdad, and removed the allied troops. Saddam Hussein then attacked his own dissidents and murdered them with the helicopters that we let him keep and stayed in power. Bush’s son, two decades later, then started the 2nd Iraq war and deposed Saddam.
See Charles de Gaulle {138034} on the ephemeral nature of treaties.
The Senator was criticizing President George W. Bush, who made a show of flying onto an aircraft carrier in combat uniform and then announcing the end of the Iraq war with banners flying saying “Mission Accomplished.” His announcement and publicity stunt was very premature as American military casualties continued thereafter.
Vladimir Lenin
Lee was trying to negotiate a peace treaty as a part of his his potential surrender. However, Grant would not be drawn into that, Lee was NOT the government of the Confederacy, and Grant had served with him earlier in the Mexican War and knew he was not a fanatic on teh subject of slavery and race as most of the Southern leaders were. They werenthe ones who would have to be captured or driven to surrender. Grant could have gotten authoirioty as he was in almost real time contact with President Lincoln by telegraph. However, neither wanted to negotiate peace with Lee. Instead, Grant gave Lee and his men incredibly gracious termsof surrender which he and Lincoln hoped would casue the avarage Southern soldiers to feel better about surrender for although Lee's was the largest Confederate Army, there were still others out there that had to be dealt with,
James Norman "Jim" Mattis is the 26th and current United States Secretary of Defense, serving in the Trump administration, and a retired United States Marine Corps general. He previously served as the 11th Commander of United States Central Command, the Unified Combatant Command responsible for American military operations in the Middle East, Northeast Africa, and Central Asia, from August 11, 2010, to March 22, 2013. Mattis was confirmed 98–1 by the United States Senate on January 20, 2017, the first member of President Trump's cabinet to be confirmed.
