Marine Corps. Gen. James Mattis, commander of US Joint Forces Command, acknowledged last week that he’s taken some heat for his stance last year against effects-based operations. In fact, he said he was “pleased to be invited anywhere” after his publicized remarks in August 2008 ripping the concept. But speaking Feb. 12 at a Reserve Officers Association symposium in Washington, D.C, Mattis reiterated in various ways his conviction that war is not seemly without putting people at risk—an apparent dig at airmen who may fly high above the battle. “If we are not willing to put a lot of troops on the ground, we are not going to win,” Mattis asserted. He also said that ground units are going to be smaller and operate in a leaner way, without large-screen plasma TVs and “18 entrees at dinner” in war zones.
U.S. Air Force F-35s and F-22s regularly deploy deep into the Pacific region from Alaska, Utah, and Hawaii. In the future, though, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command would like to see the Air Force permanently station fifth-generation aircraft west of the international date line—closer to China.