Mattis’s falling out with the Obama administration, especially over Iran, offers a perspective into how the retired four-star Marine general will lead the world’s largest military and the advice he will bring to Trump during the most sensitive Situation Room debates.
The heated discussions in 2011 over how to respond to the Iranian rockets stretched on for weeks.
“There were concerns about proportionality, effectiveness and whether the Iranians would escalate,” said one former Pentagon official who took part in the discussions. “Could you actually hit the guys who were responsible as opposed to some random entity? Would it be anything more than a pinprick? How do you do something more than a pinprick without starting a conflict?”
In the end, Mattis was authorized to take action inside Iraq against the leaders of the Iranian-backed militias.
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