re: Retired Green Beret officer: Mattis "left my men to die."

This is comedic.
Truly.
Rah.

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What a bunch of bullshite. They fail to mention that the incident that Mattis "failed" to support was a spec-ops, CIA operation. The Marines are quite removed from such missions, especially in 2001 (it's much more integrated now). They also don't mention what the Marines were in the middle of doing when this situation came up. I read a good book related to this incident, but more focused on the CIA's operations leading up to and during the invasion of Afghanistan. Those guys had their own support system and were quite outside the Marine's scope of responsibility.

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Actually, they had both SOCOM air support out of Elgin, fixed wing and copters, and Blackwater support during that time frame.

That does not negate the responsibility of all services to respond to distress calls ... but as it's already been stated multiple times, we'll have to wait a see.

But if more SpecOps guys come forward then it'll be a problem for this Marine 4 star.

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New America Think Tank

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In 2013, Anne-Marie Slaughter became President of New America, replacing Steve Coll.[7] Google's Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, is the chairman of the foundation's board of directors.

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Anne-Marie Slaughter served as the Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department from January 2009 until February 2011 under U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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Some links:
New Hillary Clinton Emails: Anne-Marie Slaughter, Sidney Blumenthal Urged Libya Military Action


‘Bravo!’ Email Appears To Show Clinton’s Friend Congratulating Her on Bombing of Libya

Clinton's Silicon Valley secrets: Google boss Eric Schmidt drew up campaign plan

Hacked emails show Eric Schmidt played a crucial role in Team Hillary’s election tech

Google’s Eric Schmidt Wore ‘Staff’ Badge at Hillary Clinton Election Night Party

Amerine's reputation was largely built through the book The Only Thing Worth Dying For by Eric Blehm that talks about the mission to put Karzai in charge of Afghanistan. He also faced court-martial for speaking to a member of congress about the condition of a hostage negotiation in 2013, around the time Berghdahl trade happened.

Amerine has every right to his own opinion about the friendly fire incident in Afghanistan, but I can tell you that speculating as to whether Mattis' choppers are going to get the evac in time is pointless. Yeah, maybe Cody Prosser lives, maybe he doesn't. Amerine has no fricking way of knowing that. Nor does he have any way of knowing why Mattis' didn't send the MEDEVAC, nor was it Amerine's decision to make. I really hate the selfish way that Amerine is handling this issue. I think it's completely inappropriate and the opposite of being a professional. If Amerine had any respect for the commission he once held he would shut the frick up or come strong with some evidence in a forum more significant than a fricking facebook page. This whole thing screams "LOOK AT ME MY MEN DIED". Disgusting.

This is the Story of Jason Amerine's time on ODA 574, as told by Amerine: If you click through these, you can read every surviving member of that ODA's mission to escort Karzai to the throne

Interestingly, he was the ODA commander when a B-52 bomb dropped a 2000 pounder on the wrong coordinate and killed 3 members of his ODA. One could use the same logic that Amerine is using and blame Amerine for the death of his three teammates, but of course that would be completely unfair and baseless. One thing is for DAMN sure though, like it or not, Amerine is responsible for what his team did and did not do, and that includes casualties.

IN THIS VERY INTERVIEW Amerine claims that two died instantly, and that "nothing could be done for Prosser".

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On the morning of December 5 ... the headquarters was directing air strikes against the ridgeline across from us. One of the guys messed up and brought in the bomb on us. So when the bomb hit them, the last count that I got, the latest number was I lost about 27 of my guerrillas. JD and Dan died instantly really. Cody Prosser, was a friend of mine that came in with the headquarters, was mortally wounded. He lived for a while, but there wasn't anything that could be done with him really.

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Well, Jason, which is it? Nothing could be done or Mattis' MEDEVAC could have saved his life?

The way Amerine talks about this mission makes my fricking skin crawl. "My men, My guerillas, My, Mine, Me, Myself, blah blah blah.

For those who aren't aware, ODA Team Leaders are Captains in the Army, and they serve a max of about 2 years at the tactical level before going on to fulfill many years of staff jobs and hopefully getting a Battalion Command one day. Most Captains don't run around Talking like they own shite, because in truth they don't. The popular nick-name for Captains used to be "summer help", if that gives any indication of how expendable they are to an ODA's operations.

This retarded statement by Amerine probably won't amount to anything. Maybe MAttis' screwed up, maybe he didn't. We have multiple decades of performance reviews and testimonies about Mattis' professionalism and integrity. So assuming that there was such a death on Mattis' record, it certainly wouldn't make him unsuitable for SECDEF.

There it is.

These scumbags can never cover their trails completely.

I notice you left out some key passages

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At the time, Mattis was reluctant to send aircraft without knowing the situation on the ground, “Well, if they’ve taken fire and you can’t tell me definitively how they got all scuffed up, I’m not going to send anything until you can assure me that the situation on the ground is secure,” Mattis is quoted as saying.

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Sounds like he was trying to avoid what happened in "Lone Survivor"

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“Cody died around the time we reached Rhino and I was told at least two Afghans died because of the delay but nobody knows for certain,” he wrote.

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If nobody knows for certain, then that's a pretty serious allegation to be throwing around. But its not the first time this guy has opened his mouth. He was investigated by the Army for comments he made to Congress about hostage negotiating

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“Cody died around the time we reached Rhino and I was told at least two Afghans died because of the delay but nobody knows for certain,” he wrote.

Yeah, Nobody knows, so shut the frick up Jason Amerine

If nobody knows for certain, then that's a pretty serious allegation to be throwing around. But its not the first time this guy has opened his mouth. He was investigated by the Army for comments he made to Congress about hostage negotiating

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Classic spotlight Ranger shite. His career is full of this stuff.

Love the perspective you always bring to things. I don't always agree with everything, but it is usually thought out and presented with some verifiable information. Very nice post.

You have the best melts Jimmie.

I think it needs to be remembered that this was in the earliest days on the War on Terror. We hadn't been in constant combat operations like we have been since. Things like CAS weren't an exact science. The Marines were not good at CASEVAC and still don't have dedicated CASEVAC units. It's just not something they trained on a lot. They're better now of course, just like everyone is better at CAS now. We also weren't as good at communicating then. The Marines were fighting their piece of the war and SOCOM was fighting theirs. The overlap was minimal at best. Combat Operation Center or TOC, whatever we're calling a command post these days, operations weren't near what they are today.