Generally speaking, events catapult Marine to a top post

July 21 update: The Defense Department announced today that the President has nominated Gen. Mattis to head Central Command.

NORFOLK

Marine Gen. James N. Mattis has spent the last three years largely out of the spotlight, toiling atop two bureaucracies: NATO's Supreme Allied Command Transformation and U.S. Joint Forces Command, both headquartered in Norfolk.

Last month, when he was passed over for commandant of the Marine Corps, it seemed as if his 38 years in uniform were coming to an end.

Then came Rolling Stone and the domino effect.

Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, head of the U.S. effort in Afghanistan, was forced to resign after a magazine profile depicted him and his staff as contemptuous of the Obama administration. Obama tapped Army Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, to replace him.

That opened up a plum position for a four-star general or admiral. Thursday, Mattis got the nod to take over Central Command, pending Senate confirmation. He will oversee Petraeus and the war effort in Afghanistan, as well as the U.S. military effort in Iraq.

Mattis brings a blend of realism and intellectual rigor to his work. He speaks with candor and confidence, not cockiness.

A speech he made recently to the Navy League of Hampton Roads provided a glimpse into his philosophy of war, and his thoughts about the nation's enemies.

Mattis does not rely on dense military jargon to get his point across. In describing the big picture, he references the "values of the Enlightenment," battles at Yorktown and Shiloh, the Vietnam War. He uses a good dose of humor at the podium, often joking about his status as "senior bachelor in the U.S. military" or being a Marine.

"Sometimes we're prouder to be part of the naval service than the Navy is to have us, I think, because we're a little obnoxious, but generally speaking, it's a wonderful team," he told about 200 people in a Virginia Beach ballroom.

Joking aside, he knows what it's like to be in the hot seat.

Mattis led the Marine offensive to subdue the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004, during the height of the insurgency. He has also been tested in the public eye: Comments he made in 2005 about it being "fun to shoot some people" in Afghanistan irked his bosses but didn't end his career.

Afghanistan, he said, is "going to be a very, very tough fight for some time to come."

He doesn't use phrases like "Islamic fundamentalist" or "jihadist" when describing who the military is fighting.

He calls them, simply, "the enemy" - and sees them as the newest in a long line of foes the nation has faced.

"This is an enemy, I want to remind you, who has killed more Muslims than he's killed Jews or Christians or Hindus. It's an enemy who knows he cannot win at the ballot box; that's why they use bombs. They know that nobody is going to vote their medieval message in."

He acknowledged the heartbreaking toll of combat deaths and grievously wounded troops, and the steady drumbeat of news about deadly homemade bombs.

Mattis said he returned from a trip to Afghanistan about six weeks ago.

"The hardest thing for me to convey," he said, "is that progress and violence can co-exist.... 'How can there be progress?' we say. 'Look at these IED attacks.' The fact is there is progress."

The Pakistani army has made strides in eliminating safe havens used by the Pakistani and Afghani Taliban, he said, and there's been a falling out between the two groups.

"That's all good. As far as I'm concerned, let dog eat dog at this point."

Schools are another sign of progress. Girls who were prohibited from education under the Taliban are now going to class.

"This enemy does recognize the danger of education to young people, and what it could do to their message," he said.

He does not see Afghanistan as another Vietnam. "It was understandable that some people in Vietnam, under an unresponsive government, said 'Well, I have hope that things will get better if Uncle Ho comes in with his Communists.' "

Afghanis don't have that illusion, he said.

They have already lived under the Taliban's rule and know their lives won't get better if they return to power.

He uses the so-called Sunni Awakening in Iraq as an example of how things can turn around.

After U.S. forces cleared insurgents from Fallujah, residents in the Anbar province of Iraq began cooperating with U.S. efforts to crack down on terrorists.

"It was a bloody awful effort to get there, but it did turn, and that's a fact that remains - that a skeptical population came over to our side. The reason is, we're the good guys. I never said we're the perfect guys, we make mistakes. But we are the good guys, and we won them over."

The American people should not lose faith now, he said.

"The only way we can lose this war is if we lose it in Paris and Brussels, in Berlin and Washington, if we lose it in the bars in Boston and the living rooms of Illinois. That's where we would lose it.

"Because our message is stronger, our troops are plenty skillful, and the ferocity and ethical approach to fighting that our troops represent is what eventually turns a skeptical population against the enemy and over to our side."

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com