of international geopolitics where 'strategy' is defined not by militarily sound or logical measures but by national partisan politics, where 'military operations' all have a domestic content driver, where the sands shift constantly and the road signs are routinely jumbled and turned -- by the very people who told you to go in that sand pile by those roads...

It's like the opening scene in the old 'Mission Impossible' TV series; "Your mission, should you decide to accept it, Mr. Phelps...and that should any team member be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions." Heh. Not to worry. You get used to it after a while.