Take the CinC test

Phil O'Connor at Tech Central Station has an article up on some of the great tests of leadership of past presidents.

General Washington in 1776. You've lost every battle and the Revolution seems a bust. Your spies tell you that the British officers are wintering in New York City and you think that means the Hessians will get falling down drunk on Christmas Eve and sleeping it off next morning. However, they are the world's best soldiers and will beat you if they are awake, sober or not. Also, the Delaware River is full of ice and your guys have no food or shoes. And many New Jerseyites are Tories who might rat you out. Do you roll the dice to change the course of the war, figuring the Germans don't like fighting on Christmas, or do you wait for spring time rather than risk what little is left of the Continental Army?

Hindsight is great, isn't it? You probably knew what to do. How about this?

President (Plug in Name of Your Choice) in February 2005. The CIA and South Korean and Japanese intelligence agree that radio traffic and satellite photos of North Korea, where no one has human spy assets, is facing a famine and that it has massed troops to invade South Korea in a few days, after smuggling a nuclear bomb into a major Japanese city to blackmail Japan and the US into giving them a free hand. What do you do?

Posted by Bruce Gottfred at July 21, 2004 08:53 AM | TrackBack