Politics Talk. New Assessment & Perhaps Appreciation for Mattis/Kelly?

A few things are quite obvious if you care to pull the curtain back a little (well as much as an average citizen can).

Not in any particular order but my thinking goes like this....

1.  Marine Corps Generals still have the political game down cold.  I don't understand the yielding on women in combat but its obvious that they did some kind of reading of the wind and simply dealt with the circumstances as they were.  The full telling of that story will come with time, but although many disagree, I know feel like it was inevitable so they played the game.

2.  Kelly is MUCH MORE CONSERVATIVE than many realized when he took over the reigns of Chief Of Staff.  Dude has been pushing a border security agenda that at times seems even more hardline than even Trump.  The same plays out on social issues. 

3.  Mattis is playing the corridors of Washington in ways that would make Macavelli blush!  He is the constant.  He is the true power player and the most powerful man in the cabinet.  He cultivates relationships, and when new players enter he pivots, brings them into his confidence and eventually ends up dominating them.  McMaster was in deep water when dealing with him and couldn't handle the swim.  I believe a few others have met the same fate....with the assistance of his buddy Kelly and the quiet devil dog that is still working behind the lines...General Dunford, the CJCS, the Marines have Washington in their paws.

4.  Even when you look at the F-35, perhaps the most poorly run defense project in the history of the world, the Marines have won.  I don't doubt for one minute that Mattis supports it.  FOR THE MARINES!  And to me that's the issue.  Name one plane that the F-35 is clearly superior to.  If you said the F-15, F-16, F-18, Gripen, Typhoon or Rafale I'd say you were full of shit.  If you said the F-35B was outrageously superior to the Harrier and will deliver capabilities never seen before in a STOVL jet (in the performance dept!) then you're spot on.  Everyone else got screwed.  The entire program labored hard to produce a world winning STOVL jet and wrecked the allied air defense to do it.  Marines win everyone else loses.

In short?

With Mattis, Kelly and Dunford, the Marines are in power positions and making shit happen.

It's a weird thing to see.