this is not well in sense that the white house will float out there that they re going to fire somebody, how unhappy the president is with someone. seen with attorney general, seeing it now with secretary tillerson and saw it a while back when it was leaked out that the president was considering firing general mickleson, combat commander in afghanistan, it verges on the criminal. weakens authority of a man fighting a war. people can die for that. similarly with secretary tillerson, whatever time he has left, he s not going to be taken seriously by too many world leaders. that is also very dangerous. that s essential for secretary of state. this is not a celebrity tv show, you have to have crediblity.
dog mattis as our secretary of defense. mad dog the nickname general mattis earned in the bloodiest battle of the iraq war is donald trump s pick for defense secretary. he s our best. they say he s the closest thing to general george patton that we have and it s about time. mattis is a seasoned combat commander with 44 years of service in the marine corps. and key commands in both afghanistan and iraq. he led troops in the 2003 invasion and later in the battle for fallujah. the u.s. military is quite capable of giving enemies their longest day and worst day if ordered to do so. after disputes with the white house, mattis has been critical of the obama administration. the next president is going to inherit a mess. like trump, mattis is hawkish on iran.
endorsed by others, and there are key policy differences that he might have with trump. reporter: we re hearing a lot of positive reaction to mattis nomination, this from both republicans and democrats, but also from people in uniform, some of whom were skeptical of donald trump. we are going to appoint mad dog mattis [ cheers ] as our secretary of defense. reporter: mad dog, the nickname general james mattis earned leading marines in the bloodiest battle of the iraq war is donald trump s pick for defense secretary. and he s our best. [ applause ] they say he s the closest thing to general george patton that we have, and it s about time! reporter: the seasoned combat commander has 44 years of service in the marine corps and key commands in afghanistan and iraq. he led troops in the 2003
dog mattis, as our secretary of defense. mad dog, the nickname general james mattis earned, leading u.s. marines in the bloodest battle in the iraq war. is donald trump s pick for defense secretary. he s our best. they say he s the closest thing to general george patton that we have. and it s about time. madison is a seasoned combat commander with 44 years of service in the marine corps and key commands in both afghanistan and iraq, where he led troops in the 2003 invasion and later in the battle for fallujah. the u.s. military is quite capable of giving our enemies their longest day and their worst day if ordered to do. since retiring at centcom commander mattis has been critical of the obama administration. the next president is going
reconsidering. joining me is brian jones who served as a combat commander in afghanistan and now joining us for more look at the u.s. numbers. currently, 9,800 troops, and originally, it was 1,000 troops to stay in kabul, but now, there are 5,500 troops spread across three bases, and focused on counter terrorism, training and the like, but how much can 5500 troops do with that limited amount of mandate across three base bases? i mean, how much can they accomplish? well, surprisingly a large amount actually. what it come downs is that the mission is two-fold, and training the afghan national security forces, and conducting the counter terrorism operations. many of the troops are special forces and op ray or terators t night raid and take the high profile taliban targets down and