Mattis doesn't "trash talk" people. Mattis modulates, analyzes, assesses, compares, contrasts, evaluates, synthesizes. He presents a situation carefully, calmly, with balance and in a classic expository manner and style. We saw this in his letter. We see it every day in fact.
Your trying to equate Trump the Mad Dog of Bluster and Ballast to Mattis the warrior monk is Trump Fanboy blindman drivel. In short, Trump is like a wild dog while Mattis is a trustworthy leader and commander who inspires confidence in him and in others like him.
Funny, huh?
Suddenly you progressive types love, respect Mattis if he goes in another direction than the C n C. Not really if, but because the Mad Dog did so.
I mean it's totally transparent, see-through, your and y'alls true motivations. Mattis reveals that he is ultimately more globalist than the domestic hero. He was a fine commander and one I would want in command of our sons and daughters in the field of battle, winning for us. On the world stage he's a bit timid in his defense of American priorities whether they be at the expense of our allies or not... but directed at the expense of our true enemies, long term.
Tough love. Europe seems suicidal under its current elite class... there is growing disgruntlement festering in the ranks, the populations of Europe. The founding and evolution of the West has and is a proud and noble one, expecially amongst the other histories of the planet...
Certainly not one worthy of being buried by the oncoming hordes from different, lesser cultures.
Long-term freedoms and Western society is at stake, yet the globalist seem not only unconcerned at the threat, but seem to be placing dynamite in the termite holes they have burrowed over the last century.
Its Europe's choice to go the way of the horse and buggy... we are not into letting them pull us under as they begin to go down, to drown, their condescending noses still raised way high, last to go below the surface as the floods pour in, consume them.
One doesn't, can never actually know where that exact social tipping point is, but they are playing with disaster. A Russian roulette spinning with only one blank chamber instead of only one bullet.
That last statement of yours is predicated on the Marquess of Queensberry Rules... which is not a winning political strategy... especially when the only responsible actors are abiding by those sweet and idealistic rules. That's called being played as a chump, and to counter that is why Trump is president. Its why Mattis will never be president... Trump knows the actual lay of the land, sees the world, has not been spoiled in temperament and experience with always only having the most powerful military in history to be concerned with.
Different set of rules, different priorities, different directions, narrow vs broad aims and concerns.
Only one of the two is ultimately responsible.