Qualifying Exam

Dick Cavett seems to have gotten a server full of comments for saying that General Petreus's chest full of medals would be awfully impressive to a 12 year old.

So just to be clear, he talks about the special test that West Point gave for another General.

...Problem: One of your men, a 30-year veteran of the Indian Wars, informs you that the largest encampment of Indians he has ever seen, comprising countless Sioux, Cheyenne and a few Arapaho lodges, stretches for several miles along the river bank and would contain an estimated 1,200 armed warriors. You have fewer than 300 men. You should:

A. Laugh in his face.

B. Get into the center of a large city.

C. Charge into the middle of the camp and speak to those savages in no uncertain terms.

D. Wish that cell phones had been invented.

E. Give them presents. They are like children and love anything shiny. Should you have a copy of “The Golden Treasury of Poetry,” Sitting Bull is fond of Emily Dickinson.

F. Attack them boldly, kissing your men, your arse and your scalp goodbye.

How about sit in the Pentagon at head of Centcom, and send those men into that camp from the comfort of your office to make sure all those shiny medals don't get mussed?