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General who said it was 'fun to shoot people' takes over US Central Command
General James Mattis, the current head of the US Joint Forces Command and who previously led troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, had widely been tipped as the next head of Central Command. President Barack Obama must formalize the nomination, which then goes to Congress for approval.
CENTCOM, as it is known, oversees operations in a volatile swathe of the world that covers 20 countries and stretches from Egypt across the Middle East and into south and central Asia.
Robert Gates, the defense secretary, praised the four-star general as "one of the military's most innovative and iconoclastic thinkers."
Gates also dismissed concerns about his 2005 comments, saying Mattis had learned his lesson.
Gen. Mattis was reprimanded at the time by the Marine Corps for telling a conference in San Diego, California: "It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling."
During a discussion panel he said: "You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil.