Mattis draws little flak at confirmation hearing
WASHINGTON — Retired Marine Gen. James N. Mattis, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Pentagon, took little flak at a relatively brief Senate confirmation hearing Thursday that focused in part on his views of social shifts underway in the military.
Mattis signaled that he doesn’t intend to reverse Obama administration decisions that opened combat positions to women, gave gay and lesbian service members protection from discrimination, and lifted bans against transgender men and women serving openly in the military.
“I’ve never cared much about two consenting adults and who they go to bed with,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He also said that civilian control of the military “is a fundamental tenet of the American military tradition,” even though he will need an exemption from the law because of his recent service.
Mattis, 66, retired in 2013 after serving more than four decades in the Marines. Federal law bars anyone from heading the Defense Department who served in the military in the past seven years.
Mattis, a popular figure at the Pentagon and in Congress, received little resistance from committee members during the 31⁄2-hour hearing. The House and Senate are expected to approve his waiver Friday, and the full Senate is likely to easily approve his confirmation.
Quizzed on his plans to defeat Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, he said the U.S.-led coalition air attacks and other operations that President Barack Obama began in mid-2014 needs to be put on “a more aggressive timeline.”
He described Russia as a “strategic competitor,” not a partner, citing U.S. opposition to Moscow’s aggressive military interventions in Syria and Ukraine.
He said Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump has repeatedly praised, is trying to “break” the NATO military alliance created to oppose the Soviet Union during the Cold War and expanded ever since.
The United States, he added, must use “diplomatic, economic, military and alliance steps, working with our allies, to defend ourselves where we must,” Mattis said.
If confirmed, he said he would continue to use military overflights and other tactics to ensure freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, where China has engaged in growing territorial and maritime disputes with its neighbors.