U.S. Marine Corps General James N. Mattis, who currently serves as the commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command, has been selected to lead U.S. Central Command.  This is an outstanding pick by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.  Mattis is an exemplary general officer and a true strategic thinker.  Not surprisingly, the mainstream media is beating up on Mattis for some comments he’s made in the past about warfare.  His remarks were candid and, unfortunately, have been taken out of context.  One misleading headline reads:  “James Mattis: ‘It’s fun to shoot some people.’”  Here’s the context for the quote:    

You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years, because they didn’t wear a veil.  You know guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway.  So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot ‘em.

I know this might come as a surprise to some people but our enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan are not good people.  They intentionally target and kill civilians.  They are the types who think it’s okay to slaughter innocent men, women, and children.  They hold the nineteen hijackers who killed nearly three-thousand Americans on September 11, 2001 in high esteem.  They treat women as second-class citizens and view it as their duty to kill Christians and Jews. 

So Mattis isn’t politically correct; he’s a warrior and he’s exactly the type of man I want defending this country.  It’s a blessing that we have men like James Mattis and it’s a travesty that his reputation be marred in anyway by a handful of so-called journalists.  The Senate should waste no time in confirming General Mattis.