Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis has been tapped by Donald Trump to head the Defense Department. Mattis is an outstanding pick for a number of reasons, not least of which is the message sent to our enemies by having the Pentagon under the charge of a man nicknamed “Mad Dog.” Mattis was forced into “early retirement” by Barack Obama because he wouldn’t play along with the Iran “nuclear deal” charade. He’ll will inherit a post facing serious challenges thanks to the malfeasance of that same former boss. So what did Mattis do in retirement? He got in his car and drove across our nation, trying to personally visit the families of Marines who died under his command.

He will require House and Senate waivers for the seven-year moratorium on military officers taking a civilian appointment at the Pentagon, but that’s unlikely to be a problem given the high esteem in which he is held on Capitol Hill. Some of the congressional cupcakes, however, might wet themselves over some other observations from the man also known as the “Warrior Monk”:

“I don’t lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.”

“The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event. That said, there are some a—holes in the world that just need to be shot.”

“You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.”

“Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment (in American democracy) and kill every one of them until they’re so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact.”

“No war is over until the enemy says it’s over. We may think it over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote.”

“Demonstrate to the world there is ‘No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy’ than a U.S. Marine.” (Mattis’ letter To 1st Marine Division)

On a final note, consider how different our response to Iran’s hijacking of our Navy vessel and its seamen would have been, if a Marine named “Mad Dog” was at the helm. Those Iranians would have been toast. Of course, if “Mad Dog” was at the helm of DOD, Iranians never would have gotten within range of that boat.