US President-elect Donald Trump this week formally named his choice for America’s Secretary of Defense (equivalent of Defense Minister). The US Secretary of Defense is one of the most important government cabinet positions because it exercises command and control over all branches of the American armed forces, which have been engaged in continuous war for the past 15 years. Trump’s selection, Gen. James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, will first require a waiver from the US Congress to serve because he is only recently retired from the military, but he is expected to be approved and reform the world’s most well funded fighting force.

Gen. Mattis is a 66-year-old retired four-star general of the United States Marine Corps and led Marines in battle in Afghanistan and Iraq during his 44-year military career. He is also the former head of U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military action in the Middle East, Central and South Asia.

Mattis is regarded as a true warrior scholar, a military intellectual with battlefield experience. He is said to keep a copy of Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius’ Mediationsby his bedside and to have once assigned reading lists to his junior officers. The nickname ‘Mad Dog’ reportedly results from his determination and grit, reflected in infamous remarks attributed to him, including:

• “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”
• “Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment (in American democracy) and kill every one of them until they’re so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedom intact.”

The tenacity of ‘Mad Dog’ Gen. Mattis may have resulted in him being forced out of U.S. Central Command in 2013 when the Obama administration sought to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program, while the general reportedly expressed great skepticism about talks with Tehran and sought military contingency plans.

To be sure though, Gen. Mattis enjoys widespread support from US Military officials and civilian leaders because he is seen as honest and straight talking. Upon taking control of the US Pentagon he could be expected to set about reducing inefficiency, waste and potential weaknesses in American global force projection. The selection of Gen. Mattis to lead America’s military system during a week in which the US Pentagon reportedly buried an internal report that found it could have saved USD $125 billion by cutting bureaucratic waste could result in a much needed clampdown on unnecessary or unwise spending among other reforms.

It could also be expected that with ‘Mad Dog’ at the top of the Pentagon it will be crystal clear amongst America’s myriad of defense agencies and officials who is in charge. Unlike some academics, businessmen and politicians who have led the US Dept. of Defense in the past, Gen. Mattis has experienced life on the battlefield and crafted military strategy first-hand and as such will likely be impatient or push back against ideas or suggestions from stakeholders with lesser wisdom. Along the same lines, Gen. Mattis is likely to have a more realistic view of ongoing wars and potential threats than some of his predecessors since he is a military veteran whose troops relied on sober assessments of situations, good or bad. His renowned integrity could also emphasize appointments at the Department of Defense that are based on merit rather than affiliation, loyalty or other criteria besides sheer capability.

Although some of US Presidentelect Trump’s other government cabinet picks are more rife with controversy, his selection of Gen. James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis makes perfect sense at a time when America’s military remains engaged across the globe and needs to draw upon the wisdom of one its finest warrior-scholars.