My friend Jim Mattis is gone from the Pentagon, and the U.S. is one step closer to chaos

His call sign was never “Mad Dog.” That was but one of the many, many things President Donald Trump got wrong about retired four-star Marine general and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.

His actual call sign is, believe it or not, “CHAOS” – an appropriate sobriquet for all that is unfolding in the White House and Washington these days. “CHAOS” is actually an acronym meaning “Colonel Has An Outstanding Solution,” an affectionate reference to his mastery of the battlefield from his days as a senior colonel.

Mattis, whom I’ve known for decades, certainly took his share of hills from America’s enemies, in the Persian Gulf War and in Afghanistan and Iraq. But even he eventually hit a hill even he couldn’t take – his mercurial Commander-in-Chief.