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Mattis and West Could Be in Same Chain of Command

Trump’s defense chief pick had said West ‘watched too many Hollywood movies’ after Iraq incident

Former Rep. Allen West, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, met Monday with members of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team. (Kevin Hagen/Getty Images)
Former Rep. Allen West, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, met Monday with members of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team. (Kevin Hagen/Getty Images)

Former Rep. Allen West is eyeing a job that might put him in the same chain of command as Gen. James Mattis, who once chastised West for an incident in Iraq.

West met Monday with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Gen. Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump’s national security adviser appointee, and K.T. McFarland, who Trump has chosen as deputy national security adviser, McClatchy reported.

West drew Mattis’ scrutiny after he was reprimanded for firing a weapon near the head of prisoner he was interrogating while he was an artillery battalion commander in Iraq in 2003.

In putting together documents to prepare his Marines for deployment to Iraq, Mattis pointed to the case of West as a “commander who has lost his moral balance or has watched too many Hollywood movies,” defense writer Thomas Ricks wrote in his book “Fiasco.”

West was not court-martialed but was fined $5,000 and retired from the Army.

West has praised the nomination of Mattis since, calling him a “Marine’s Marine and a man’s man.”

West served one term in the House of Representatives before losing his race in 2012 to Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, who this year lost his Senate race to Sen. Marco Rubio.

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