Guest writer

As shocking as it is, the departure of Mattis from the Pentagon was almost inevitable. Once neoconservative hawk John Bolton became national security adviser and Tea Party unilateralist Mike Pompeo became secretary of state, Mattis was the odd man out on national security at the top of the administration.

Now, U.S. national security policy is in the hands of an erratic and unstable president, assisted by Bolton, Pompeo and an assortment of wacky enablers like Stephen Miller.

Neocons like Bolton consider traditional U.S. allies not as partners, but as subordinates. They view democratic nations in Europe with contempt and demean and belittle NATO and other international institutions. Meanwhile, they offer no hint of any rational alternative national security strategy.

The unilateralists are good at stirring passions through tough-talk nationalism and phony patriotism, but they are not good at math. What Mattis and other serious national security professionals know is that the United States does not have the military capacity to act alone in most cases. In 1945, the U.S. had 12 million personnel in uniform; in Korea and Vietnam, the number was about 3.5 million. Today, the U.S. military has 1.3 million in active service. The all-volunteer military is highly capable but too small to meet the potential demands on national security alone.

The Trump administration is lucky that its dysfunctional national security apparatus has not encountered a real crisis. So far, its national security policy has primarily damaged critical relationships with allies, diminished the confidence in NATO, and weakened American influence broadly in the world.

But luck and hope are never effective policy.

Secretary Mattis, in his resignation, warned the nation that the Trump presidency is on a path that threatens American national security. This message should not get lost in an atmosphere of constant national turbulence today. Rather, it should alarm Americans of all political parties.

James Pardew is an Arkansas native and a former career U.S. Army officer and American diplomat. He is the author of Peacemakers: American Leadership and the End of Genocide in the Balkans. A version of this column was originally published in The Hill.