Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis Is Leaving, Too

Donald Trump just announced on Twitter that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is also leaving the administration by early next year: "General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction, at the end of February, after having served my Administration as Secretary of Defense for the past two years. During Jim's tenure, tremendous progress has been made, especially with respect to the purchase of new fighting equipment. General Mattis was a great help to me in getting allies and other countries to pay their share of military obligations. A new Secretary of Defense will be named shortly. I greatly thank Jim for his service!"

Another one of Trump's generals bites the dust.

Particularly alarming is the fact that this announcement immediately followed reports that Trump is likely to make a big move in Afghanistan. CNN's Jake Tapper tweeted: "Officials throughout the Trump administration are bracing themselves for the president to make a similar announcement as he did about Syria except this time about U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan — though they caution the president has not yet made a final decision."

It's just a spectacularly bad decision to be making major military decisions while there's a vacancy at the very top of the Defense Department.

Naturally, that vacancy is itself indicative of absolute chaos: Either Mattis resigned in protest over Trump's unilateral decision-making that flouts the advice of expert advisors, or Trump shit-canned Mattis because he won't sign off on Trump's unilateral decision-making that flouts all sage recommendations.

And the question that is troubling me greatly at the moment is this: Why does Trump urgently want all the troops home?