I really did catch the sarcasm. It's just that my wife came home with lunch and I ran off to eat. Crummy excuse but I sort of knew I was coming across too strong.

I too think Bill has it right. That is one of the key things that makes SF institutionally the force of choice for advising. Not to say that there are not SF soldiers who would make lousy advisors and GPF soldiers and Marines who would/do make great ones. But instituionally, SF selects and self-selects people who tend to be empathic with other cultures. (I once saw a really funny pseudo recruiting post online for SF calling it "armed anthropology.")

What I was trying to get at with my notion of BCT command selection was that this approach might just be doable in terms of time and effectiveness. I should add that my semi-facetious conclusion was really focused on not harming the career of some very good and successful colonels even when they were being de-selected for this particular command. You and Rob, of course, understood all that because of your sheer collective brilliance. But to everybody else, I'm sure I was being terribly opaque to the point - or is it pint? - of being assinine.

Cheers

JohnT