In a statement issued earlier Thursday, Gen. Michael W. Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, did not indicate that Mattis faced any discipline.
"Lt. Gen. Mattis often speaks with a great deal of candor," Hagee said. "I have counseled him concerning his remarks, and he agrees he should have chosen his words more carefully."
Hagee also said, "While I understand that some people may take issue with the comments made by him, I also know he intended to reflect the unfortunate and harsh realities of war."
Hagee and Pace praised the general's service and leadership. "His actions and those of his troops clearly show that he understands the value of proper leadership and the value of human life," Pace said. Hagee called him "one of this country's bravest and most experienced military leaders."
At a Marine camp in Al Asad, Iraq, a cheer went up when a CNN report about Mattis' comments was shown on a mess-hall television Thursday night. Troops started swapping stories about "Mad Dog."
Mattis, 53, has a reputation among the troops he commands as a jaunty, volatile figure fiercely committed to the Marine Corps and to the people he leads.
As the lead commander of Task Force 58, he pushed hundreds of miles into the Afghan desert to establish bases a few weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. Marines under Mattis aided anti-Taliban forces, secured the strategic Kandahar airport and cut off escape routes for Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters.
As commanding general of the 1st Marine Division based at Camp Pendleton, Mattis led that force in their advance on Baghdad in 2003, the longest, fastest move of a division-sized unit in Marine Corps history.
Mattis, who is unmarried, has served nine tours of duty in the Mideast.
Mattis' comments came in the context of how to transform the armed forces to fight terrorism beyond Iraq. He questioned future spending on new forms of air and sea warfare. "Our very dominance of certain forms of warfare have driven the enemy into historic forms of warfare that we have not mastered," he said.
He also said it was "almost embarrassing intellectually" that commanders looked to unspecified future wars and enemies to reshape the military, rather than to the insurgents it faced in Iraq.
"Don't patronize this enemy," he said of guerrillas. "They mean business. They mean every word they say. Don't imagine an enemy somewhere in the future and you're going to transform so you can fight him.
