I had a forty-five minute conversation with David Tucker (prof of Defense Analysis, and director of the Center on Terrorism and Irregular Warfare, Naval Postgraduate School) on the current problem in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the war on terror, on what Tucker calls "this high drama".  We know that the president is in a tough place and decisions have to be made.  We might end up criticizing him for the decision, but that's another issue.  Tucker notes that each possible decision in front of him is charged with bad outcomes; no matter what we do it is possible that the outcome will be bad, and, we can't even talk about probabilities, according to David.  "This is what it means to be president," Tucker says.  How does anyone make this decision?  This is why presidents are prematurely gray, I say.  Questions we considered in this conversation: Should we get out of Afghanistan?  What is the relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan, terrorists use of WMD's, and so on.  I think this is a very good conversation, Tucker knows much and is thoughtful and I thank him for doing it.  He has agreed to future conversations, and, because of the pace of events, I think these conversations will take place each week for the next few weeks.  You can listen to it by clicking here.