Gen. Mattis As I Knew Him

The new general of Central Command, James N. Mattis, is beloved and respected by his troops -- and rightly feared by America's enemies.

America’s enemies have reason to tremble tonight because one of our best warriors -- and perhaps our greatest living general, James N. Mattis (a Marine) -- is returning to the fight. Indeed, Mattis has been tapped to replace David Petraeus as the commanding general of Central Command. This gives Mattis jurisdiction over U.S. military operations for the entire Middle East and Central Asia, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria and Iran.

I first met General Mattis in 2003, while serving in Iraq as an enlisted Marine radio operator and civil affairs Non-Commissioned Officer with the First Battalion Four Marine Infantry Regiment. Mattis made it his business to visit with us regularly, talk with us, listen to us, and impart good soldierly wisdom. He was beloved and respected because we knew he loved and respected us.

Mattis is a fighting general at home in the field with the infantry. Yet, he is also one of the most learned and erudite officers ever to don a military uniform. And, like Petraeus whom he replaces, Mattis is an intellectually fierce and formidable advocate of counterinsurgency warfare.

In fact, the two generals literally rewrote the Army-Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual, 3-24. Mattis’ name doesn’t appear on the document, because by the time the new manual was published, he had left the Marine Corps Combat Development Command for his next command assignment. But make no mistake: Mattis was a decisive intellectual force who left a clear and indelible imprint on the military’s new counterinsurgency doctrine.

This bothers critics like Ralph Peters and Ann Coulter, who seem to think that counterinsurgency warfare is insufficiently manly and martial-esque. However, it is good news for our fighting men and women who know better. And it is ought to send chills down the spines of our enemies, because surely they know that in Mattis, they have met their match.

"No better friend; no worse enemy": the General coined that term to sum up his command guidance to us Marines: We were to be the Iraqi people's best friend and our foes' worst enemy. This became the unofficial motto of the First Marine Division in Iraq. But it also well describes our leader and hero, General Mattis.