Travel all the way to HI to speak for only 30 mins and do 30 Q&A? Well, the audience is the leadership of Special Ops Forces throughout Asia, to include the Chinese again for only second time, so that's enough influence-spreading to justify the trip in itself. But the real pay-off (beyond the numerous side conversations) is to sit through the two-dozen 4-minute report-out PPTs delivered by the team leaders from the break-out groups populated by all these SOF officers from around Asia. It's one big brainstorming dump from the world's most talented military officers on a host of interagency and international issues. Got several columns and a bunch of ideas for Vol. III. An incredibly privileged learning experience, for which the price of entry was--quite naturally--my own teaching session. My brief (only 12 slides) was well-received, meaning I got about 90 percent of the questions from the audience on my 3-person panel. But I also got into a yelling match with a very angry American official from the Office of Secretary of Defense/Special Ops and Lower Intensity Conflict, and since SOLIC is sort of Special Ops's civilian masters, I sort of bite the hand that feeds me (this gig at least). Oh well, if I burned an OSD bridge this late in an administration, it's not so bad. If it is, then PASOC simply won't invite me back a third time. Still, I don't consider it a good talk if somebody ain't pissed off enough in the audience to blow their stack .... Still, it was weird to see a USG official lose it like that in an official forum. I felt embarrassed for the guy.