Lt. Gen. James Mattis

Folks have their knickers in a twist over Lt. Gen. James Mattis' remarks that its fun to shoot some people and that he loves to brawl. What do they think the Marine Corps trains troops to do, hand out parking tickets?

People go into the military for lots of reasons. Some of them go into the military because it's a trip to be trained, permitted, encouraged, to go out and wreak havoc. Blow stuff up, kill a few of whoever is currently defined as the bad guys. Some of that group stay, get promoted, maybe even become generals. They're very competent when it comes to destruction. Assholes, but competent.