Barry McCaffrey

Barry Richard McCaffrey (born 17 November 1942) is a former United States Army officer and current news commentator, professor and business consultant who served in U.S. President Bill Clinton's Cabinet as the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He received three Purple Heart medals for injuries sustained during his service in the Vietnam War, two Silver Stars, and two Distinguished Service Crosses — the second-highest U.S. Army award for valor. He was inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame at U.S. Army Infantry Center at Fort Benning in 2007.

Quotes

 * The situation is perilous, uncertain, and extreme – but far from hopeless. The U.S. Armed Forces are a rock. This is the most competent and brilliantly led military in a tactical and operational sense that we have ever fielded.
 * As quoted in "The Bottom Line – Observations from Iraqi Freedom" (4 May 2006), Chaos Manor Special Reports


 * There is no reason why the U.S. cannot achieve our objectives in Iraq. Our aim must be to create a viable federal state under the rule of law which does not: enslave its own people, threaten its neighbors, or produce weapons of mass destruction. This is a 10-year task. We should be able to draw down most of our combat forces in 3–5 years. We have few alternatives to the current U.S. strategy, which is painfully but gradually succeeding. This is now a race against time. Do we have the political will, do we have the military power, will we spend the resources required to achieve our aims?
 * As quoted in "The Bottom Line – Observations from Iraqi Freedom" (4 May 2006), Chaos Manor Special Reports


 * Trump is a potential disaster as commander-in-chief—uninformed, volatile, poor judgment. Hard to believe this is the candidate of a major political party.
 * As quoted in "What Does the Military Think of Donald Trump?" (15 June 2016), Time


 * We tortured people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens of them during the course of that, both the armed forces and the CIA.
 * Quoted in  State-Sanctioned Torture in the Age of Trump, by Marjorie Cohn, Truthout (23 January 2017)