CABINET/DEFENSE/MILITARY/TRUMP PEOPLE/JAMES MATTIS: “Defense Secretary James Mattis was taken by surprise when the US Air Force dropped a Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, also known as the ‘Mother of All Bombs,’ on Islamic State targets in Afghanistan in April, according to a recent report in The New Yorker.
The decision to use the largest nonnuclear bomb in the US’ arsenal was made by General John Nicholson, the Army general commanding forces in Afghanistan, and was not discussed with Mattis, which reportedly upset him.
‘Mattis was frustrated by that,’ a senior government official told The New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins.
President Donald Trump would not reveal whether he authorized the plan to drop the massive bomb, which had never before been used in combat, instead stating that he had given the military ‘total authorization.’ “
-Eliza Relman, “Defense Secretary Mattis reportedly wasn’t consulted before the military dropped the ‘mother of all bombs’,” Business Insider, May 23, 2017