Polonius: It is backed like a weasel.
Hamlet: Or like a whale?
Polonius: Very like a whale.
(Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act III, Scene ii.)
After some harmless fun tweaking their non-intellectual little noses, I gave them enough harmless pabulum to use in their report and sent them on their way. (Oh, yes, my Draft Board approved my I-O status in the interim, and I happily served two years in a university hospital as a Conscientious Objector.)
Now, in 2008, these two NYT articles recall those two naïve Army Intelligence lieutenants who investigated me in 1965. If they made their careers in the Army, as they expected to, they’re probably high-ranking Pentagon officers now, surrounded by hundreds of peer officers who came up through the ranks as they did.
And they and their peers were probably among the Pentagon staff charged with planning the Iraqi invasion and occupation, the Afghanistan occupation, winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis, and, of course, with finding and capturing Osama Bin Laden.
So if I had to bet my modest bank account on Army Intelligence or Osama Bin Laden, on success or failure in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, I guess my bet should be pretty obvious.
