(no subject)

Gave a speech to Board of CSIS about ISIS. Audience is senior military, national security advisors, DoD and State guys (ok, a few agency personnel as well).

After I finished my remarks, moderator took the mic into the audience (dinner setting) to direct people to challenge my remarks. Handed the mic to Tom Pickering who challenged with a question. Then handed it to Jim (Hoss) Cartwright (Four Star Marine who competed with Dempsey for Chmn JCOS). He challenged. Moderator then took mic, walked over to Henry and asked him to challenge me. Henry opened up with "I completely disagree with this approach. Let me tell you where I feel we must go". He then went 180 degrees on me. I was given rebuttal time, but WTF am I going to go up against Henry in a public setting so I asked him a question. I sat down next to Scowcroft who said I was right and Henry was wrong, "but pls don't tell Henry I said that".

Over the next two days, Kissinger and I then spent 3 hours. My pants are still wet. He is so fucking brilliant that it's scary.

tjp