Jim Michaels

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — In less than three months as Defense secretary, Jim Mattis already is shaking up the Pentagon. He is making dramatic changes in the war against the Islamic State, ramping up support for allies fighting Islamic terrorists and giving commanders more latitude to make battlefield decisions.

Recent evidence of his influence includes increased military support for the Somalia government fighting al-Qaeda affiliates, a bombing campaign launched in Yemen and the dispatch of Marines and Army helicopter gunships to assist Syrian opposition forces fighting the Islamic State, or ISIS.

These moves reflect the retired Marine four-star general's approach to war, honed over decades fighting extremism in the Middle East. They put more American troops at risk, but boost the odds of defeating the Islamic State, analysts say.

“He’s not going to fight these guys with one arm tied behind his back,” said Douglas Stone, a retired Marine major general who has worked with Mattis. “He wants to defeat the enemy.”

Mattis commanded forces in Afghanistan and Iraq after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and served as head of U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. operations in the Middle East. He developed close relations with military officials in the Arab world and also gained experience fighting extremists in the region.

His ability to shape war-fighting reflects Trump’s confidence in his defense secretary and willingness to give the military a freer hand in making decisions.

“Trump said the war on terror is a top priority,” said Jim Howcroft, a retired intelligence officer who served with Mattis in the Marine Corps. "He needs to show something is being done. Mattis can do that."

Mattis' freedom under Trump is a sharp departure from the close management of the Pentagon under President Barack Obama, who was cautious about expanding forces in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere and set restrictive combat rules to minimize civilian casualties.

Obama's more cautious role was designed to guard against "mission creep," the trend toward an unintentional expansion of missions that would draw American forces further into overseas wars.

"Suggestions for deeper U.S. military involvement in a conflict like the Syrian civil war have to be fully thought through, rigorously examined with an honest assessment of the risks and tradeoffs," Obama said in a speech last year. "How will it alter the conflict? What comes next? When we ask those questions, we prevent the kind of mission creep that history teaches us to avoid."

However, Rep. Mac Thornberry, Republican chairman of the Housed Armed Services Committee, said the Obama administration “micromanaged” military decisions. And another frequent Obama critic, Sen. John McCain, Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, praised Trump for giving battlefield commanders more decision-making authority, such as when to approve airstrikes.

Trump also is letting the military boost assistance to allies in the Middle East who are fighting ISIS and other militants, a move that reflects Mattis' belief that once the nation commits to a fight it has an obligation to do everything in its power to win.

That doesn’t mean Mattis wants to deploy American combat troops to the Middle East. The White House has continued to pursue the Obama administration’s strategy of working with local forces on the ground.

Still, the Pentagon has taken risks recently that have produced some setbacks. A Navy SEAL died and several other service members were wounded during a Jan. 29 raid in Yemen. The U.S. Marines lost an aircraft in trying to evacuate the team.

In Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon is investigating many more allegations of coalition airstrikes on civilian targets than a few months earlier. The spike in reported bombings of civilians follows an increase in the U.S.-led coalition's air campaign in Mosul, as Iraqi forces continue to drive militants out of the densely populated city.

The setbacks have not deterred the Pentagon from continuing to ramp up attacks on terrorists:

•In Yemen, it conducted 70 airstrikes targeting al-Qaeda affiliates during the past month. It is a sharp expansion of its bombing campaign, as al-Qaeda extends its reach in a country torn by civil war.

•In Syria, a Marine artillery is helping local recruits drive ISIS from Raqqa, the group’s capital. Last month, U.S. aircraft ferried local forces into an attack west of Raqqa.

That marked the first time the U.S. military conducted an airlift of forces in Syria. U.S. Apache helicopter gunships have also been regularly flying missions to support fighters around the Taqba dam west of Raqqa.

•In Iraq, the U.S. military said it was sending more advisers with Iraqi forces to push ISIS out of Mosul. There are about 500 U.S. advisers with forces around Iraq's second-largest city now. The Pentagon has not said how many additional American advisers would be deployed there.

“We’ve been helping them before but not really enough,” said Howcroft, the retired officer. Mattis has shown “more willingness to lean in.”

Carl Fulford, a retired Marine four-star general who served with Mattis and was his commanding officer in the Persian Gulf War, said there is one constant about the new Defense secretary's career: “Jim is a warfighter, always has been.”

Read more:

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