[cmurf]

It's easy to look up the history of Barry McCaffrey if you don't already know him. The list of four star generals is small, as there are only 7 active four-star army generals at one time.

Preemptive wars are defensive, they confront an imminent threat, and as such are ethical and legal. Preventative war is what Bolton has advocated his entire career, and are not about confronting imminent threats but manufacturing a fiction confronted with aggressive illegal and unethical war. Any country at any time could become a target for any reason, given his worldview. And it is exactly this that makes him ill suited to head the National Security Council. That role is meant to be an honest broker in negotiating and balancing among all the incoming policy, military, and intelligence positions of the government. If that person is ideological, he cannot be trusted to be an honest broker. He isn't and he won't be.

It will be interesting to see him butt heads with Mattis. And he will. Hopefully Mattis wins, and for sure hope he doesn't quit or get canned.