Mattis vs. Donilon: Wow, no one even called to tell him he was being replaced?

During the summer, the Best Defense is in
re-runs. Here are some favorites that ran in late 2012 and in 2013. This item originally
ran on Jan. 25, 2013.

I am
told that General Mattis was traveling and in a meeting
when an aide passed him a note telling him that the Pentagon had announced his
replacement as head of Central Command. It was news to him -- he hadn't
received a phone call or a heads-up from anyone at the Pentagon or the White
House.

I asked
a friend about that. He wrote back:

...the commander-in-chief can make a change
whenever he wants and give no reason. That is right and proper under our system
of government.

But there's also the matter of common courtesy
to an uncommon man. Here is what one person wrote to me: "What message does it
send to the Services when the one leader known for his war-fighting rather than
diplomatic or bureaucratic political skills is retired early via one sentence
in the Pentagon's daily press handout? Even in battle, Mattis was inclusive of
all under his command. He took the time to pull together his driver and guards
after every day's rotation on the battlefield, telling them what he thought he
had learned and asking them for input. Surely senior administration officials
could have found the time to be gracious. But they didn't." Bing
West, admittedly a friend of Mattis and fellow
Marine, tells me: "It was injudicious to truncate Mattis's command time because
his toughness was well-known across the Middle East. The image of a determined
warfighter is precisely what a commander-in-chief should cherish when trying to
exert leverage upon a recalcitrant Iran."

ADDENDUM:

Pentagon
spokesman George Little sent along this note on Friday afternoon:

I
reject in the strongest possible terms your reporting about leadership changes
at CENTCOM. The fact of the matter is that Gen. Mattis discussed the
timing for a change of command at CENTCOM with the Secretary last fall.
At that time, Gen. Mattis was asked for recommendations on who might succeed
him at CENTCOM. It would be wildly inaccurate to suggest anything
else.

I
wrote back to Mr. Little these questions:

Can
you answer these questions? They are yes or no, I think: Are you flatly saying
that Mattis was in fact called? Or are you saying that Mattis was not called
but should not have been surprised? Or are you saying something else?

When
he didn't address those questions, I sent them again and said I would publish
his statement along with the comment that he wouldn't address my specific
questions. This led him to write back:

He wasn't called. He personally met with the
Secretary. This wasn't a surprise. You can't say I declined to address your
questions.

I
think Mr. Little is emphatically denying something I didn't say. That is, I
think Mattis knew he would be leaving eventually, which would lead to such a
conversation with the secretary, but was in fact surprised by the timing and
the lack of notice about a press release announcing his successor being issued.