US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis shakes hands with Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera during a meeting at the Pentagon
United States (US) defence secretary James Mattis has resigned, sending a letter to President Donald Trump explaining his decision.
Just after midnight on Thursday, Trump tweeted Mattis would be “retiring, with distinction”.
However, the letter to Trump that has since been circulated clearly shows that Mattis has made the decision to “step down”.
“Because you have the right to have a secretary of defence whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position,” he wrote.
Trump announced a full military pullout from Syria this week and a partial pullout from Afghanistan. Trump steadfastly defended his sudden push for retrenchment, vowing the United States would no longer be the “policeman of the Middle East” and saying the 2,000-strong US force in Syria was no longer needed as the Islamic State group had been defeated.
In his letter, Mattis agrees with Trump on that point.
“Like you, I have said from the beginning that the armed forces of the United States should not be the policeman of the world,” he wrote.
But his agreement with the US president ends there. “Instead, we must use all tools of American power to provide for the common defence, including providing effective leadership to our alliances. NATO’s 29 democracies demonstrated that strength in their commitment to fighting alongside us following the 9-11 attack on America. The Defeat-ISIS coalition of 74 nations is further proof.”
Mattis’s letter about his belief that, through pulling out, the US is damaging its alliances, is summarised in the paragraph: “One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies.”
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