The world may be fraught with tension and turmoil, but in the world of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, there’s nothing to see here.
There was bipartisan blowback after the Helsinki summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, where Mattis was not invited, but Mattis said that’s not affected him.
“I have talked immediately after the Helsinki summit, both the chief of staff and the national security adviser called me, I wouldn’t say immediately but as soon as they got free,” Mattis told reporters Friday as he stood on the River entrance steps waiting for the foreign minister of Oman to arrive.
“There have been no policy changes that have come out of it.”
Really?
“Has the president asked you to start working with Russia on the ground in Syria, militarily?” asked one reporter.
“No,” Mattis said flatly, in what turned out to be the first of two question-and-answer sessions with the Pentagon press corps that day.
Later in the Pentagon’s Correspondents Corridor, Mattis continued to insist that nothing the president has done or said has changed his marching orders in Syria or anywhere else.
“My job is to destroy ISIS and to make certain we put in place a local security force, train them up so ISIS can’t get back in.”
The discussion of resettling refugees in Syria, he said, is a humanitarian mission. “You’ll have to ask State Department. It’s USAID and State that would handle those issues,” he said.
What about Trump’s threat that Iran will “suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before,” should it ever threatens the U.S. again? Has that resulted in any change in military posture in the Persian Gulf?
“Nothing. Nothing has changed,” Mattis said. “We work very closely, as you know, with the combined 5th Fleet.”
Right now, he said, U.S., Kuwaiti, Bahraini, Saudi, and Emirati ships are out conducting routine counterpiracy patrols. “Nothing has changed for us,” he insisted.
Well surely the spat with NATO ally Turkey over its failure to release an American pastor is putting strain on the U.S.-Turkey relationship. After all, Trump is threatening sanctions, accusing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of reneging on a deal.
“We’ve had no impact on U.S.-Turkey relations, military operations at this time. We continue to work very closely together,” Mattis said.
What about the threat from Congress to suspend the sale of F-35s to Turkey?
“No effect,” Mattis insisted. “As I was saying, we’ve had no problem.”
And Trump’s planned second meeting with Putin?
“I have always been in favor, in fact, promoted the idea that we talk with one another,” Mattis said. “It’s most important that we talk with those countries that we have the largest disagreements with. I mean that’s how you repair those disagreements.”
Is North Korea really dismantling their missile production facility?
“My portfolio is the military realm. I’d prefer to speak to what I’m responsible for,” Mattis says when he’s asked about diplomacy.
“Use the State Department,” he said. “That’s who I call when I have questions, and I encourage you to do the same.”
