Major General Yair Golan:

[DFW]

9. Wes Clark, indeed.

He's originally from Arkansas, but was recently living in northern Virginia, not too far from my brother.

A Rhodes Scholar, he is one towering intellect, in contrast to his small stature. The only time I ever won a disagreement with him was just after Cheney-Bush invaded Iraq. Wes was sure they would try to invade Iran next, and I said I didn't think so. He asked what made me so sure, and I said that the Republicans were essentially cowards. They didn't like to invade places they were fairly sure would shoot back. I pointed out Panama (Bush) and Grenada (Reagan) as the sort of place Republicans liked to attack. I said Iraq was a massive miscalculation, and reminded Wes of what Rumsfeld said at the onset of the 2003 invasion: "maybe six days, maybe six weeks, certainly not six months." Oops. Like I said, not a change of heart, just a miscalculation. They really didn't think Iraq would shoot back, and they knew that Iran would. That is the only time I can remember when I was right and Wes was wrong. Of course, he also knew fifty times more about just about everything than I did, so he had a head start.