I just liked this photograph. President Obama yesterday bestowed the Medal of Honor on Dakota Meyer, the Marine on the right. Just when I think Obama is tone deaf on the military, he does something like this that makes me think he really knows what he is doing. Apparently Meyer had mentioned to White House staffers that he would like to have a beer with the president.

I was surprised to see Ronald Wilson Reagan and Woodrow Wilson almost tie as the worst presidents of the 20th century. Reagan led most of the week, but Wilson pulled by him yesterday afternoon -- only to be edged out in the final tally when I shut down voting at 9 A.M. eastern time this morning.

I understand Wilson's showing -- both the pacifist left and the non-interventionist right loathe him, as well as many people who simply see him as a racist. But I suspect Reagan's high score says a lot about the readers of this blog. Based on comments posted on this blog and notes to my blog e-mailbox, you guys really think Reagan was a bad president. I suspect his surprise near-"win" is due in part to a growing distaste with tax-cutting ideologues who seem blithely unaware of the damage they do. Sample comment from Boone, N.C.: "with his half-baked political philosophy, Reagan set this country on its present course to ruin."

The surprise to me is how even the voting was. After Reagan and Wilson, it basically is close to a scatter-shot tie between the rest -- Harding, Lyndon Johnson and Nixon clumped together, followed by Carter and Hoover, who also tied. And old Coolidge brought up the rear with one vote.

I was impressed that one Marine intelligence analyst in Afghanistan took the time to send in an anti-Harding vote. Another military e-mail voted against Richard Nixon, not for the usual reasons of corruption and such, but because, he wrote, "He's helped the Chinese more than he's helped Americans. We're still paying for his foreign policy coup since most of our manufacturing is now over there."

And you all certainly don't agree with me about JFK. In fact, there was not a single whole vote for him as worst president of the century, although one person gave him a half vote, and several offered him 2nd place, maybe just to be nice to me. Reading over the discussion and notes, I've been persuaded that he was not the worst president of the 20th century, but probably the most over-rated. (Though of course many of you would give that title to Reagan.)

I'm also surprised that Lyndon Johnson didn't get more votes. And apparently people have forgiven Bill Clinton his inability keep all his body parts inside his clothing -- not a single person named him, despite the apparent bias against Southern Democrats (Wilson, Carter, Johnson) in the polling. And yes, Wilson was a Southern Democrat. He received one of the most succinct votes: "On any consequentialist reading, whether you are realist or liberal in international relations, the worst American president in the international realm of all time. On civil rights, more retrograde than any American politician since Andrew Johnson."

Here is the final tally:

1. Ronald Reagan 17.5
2. Woodrow Wilson 17
3. Warren Harding 9
4. Richard Nixon 9
5. Lyndon Johnson 8
6. Herbert Hoover 7
7. Jimmy Carter 7
8. Calvin Coolidge 1
9. JFK .5

The little think tank that could is launching a new TV series, titled "Command Post," with the Lucian empire. You can see the first episodes, about the future direction of U.S. policy in Afghanistan, here.

Next, "CNAS: The Movie"? If so, I wanna be played by Homer Simpson, the TV character with whom I most closely identify.

...Then you know you've got trouble.

On the other hand, it is a good sign that the Balkans are so peaceful that the Serb defense minister has time to complain about an Amy Winehouse concert. Maybe we should send her on a tour of Syria, Iran, and Pakistan. 

(HT to MK)

From Shit My Students Write: "The rebel and onion armies showed grose negligence by having many of their battles right inside national parks, like Gettysburg."

(HT to AS)

No, I am not selling this blog to AOL for $100 million. But I am told it is true that I was in a 'Jeopardy' question last night. I never realized so many of my friends and relatives watch that show. I got a note from one who wrote,

Just wanted to give you a heads up that you were in a Jeopardy question tonight. And it was a Daily Double in the second round. Here's the question, from the category, "Si, Parlo Italiano":

"This word for a disastrous failure is the title of Thomas Ricks' book about the American military in Iraq"

The guy bet $2,600. He didn't know the answer.

Tom again: Meanwhile, old Jamie McIntyre reports that one of the memos that former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has posted ranks Pentagon reporters. I appear to be at the bottom of his list. Judging by the date and title of the memo, my guess is that he is summarizing what he thought Ken Bacon, the spokesman for the preceding Pentagon regime, told him about the media. Ken, who is now dead, was always very impressed with Bill Gertz of the Washington Times, but at the time had a somewhat contentious relationship with me, I think in part because before he went over to the dark side he had been a colleague of mine at the Wall Street Journal. We made up when he went back to civilian life.

A year later, Rumsfeld's opinion of my reporting abilities apparently had risen, as he wrote in a memo on Sept. 16, 2002, that:

I think what I ought to do is open the meeting by pointing out that the last time we met in classified session, within 23 hours Tom Ricks called the Pentagon and quoted things to me I had said in the meeting.

(HTs to JW, JEM, MT, JM, FXD, DP, HM, etc.)

You're all winners, of course -- that's why you read this blog. I actually liked a lot of the submissions, even though it kind of deteriorated near the end. (Caddyshack? And someone forgot blog rule 19: Try not to post comments after consuming four or more drinks.)

Anyways, thanks for the laughs. I've long been an Elmer Fudd fan, so one of my favorites was Conormannix's "Be vewy vewy qwiet … we're hunting insurgents."

But I think the winner is this, from Thomas Sheehy (I had posted it as an anonymous contribution, but in a follow-up e-mail, he said it is OK to ID him): "But wait, there's more: I'll throw in an extra troop surge absolutely free! Just pay shipping and handling."   

And to those of you who posted from Bagram -- congratulations on your nerve! I'm impressed you found that much vodka out there.

Meanwhile, here are some terrorist fist bumps in Bagram:

By Rebecca Frankel
Best Defense chief canine correspondent

There have been quite a few headlines circulating recently about war-zone dogs in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and not all of it is cheery news.

Baghdad city officials are in the process of carrying out a campaign to rid the city of its stray-dog population which, at an estimated and unwieldy 1.25 million, poses numerous health and safety hazards to the civilian population. Reports say that upwards of 58,000 have been killed in just the last three months and these teams -- consisting of city officials and veterinarians -- are averaging 2,400 kills per day.

Read on

Interesting photo.

I had an article in the Sunday Washington Post explaining why I think Gen. Petraeus faces a tougher challenge in Afghanistan in 2010 than he did in Iraq in 2007. Also, I was on Meet the Press yesterday with a whole cast of interesting characters -- Sen. John McCain, Rep. Barbara Lee, retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, and handsome writers Wes Moore and Sebastian Junger.

May 1945, after dining with Soviet generals:

They are a scurvy race and simply savages... The officers with few exceptions give the appearance of recently civilized Mongolian bandits."

Patton's diary, Dec. 6, 1944:

Congresswoman Luce made a very unfavorable impression on me and, I think, on everyone else. The whole crowd [of members of Congress] seemed to be below average and was looking for trouble. We had them in for lunch, gave them nothing to drink, and only fed them [GI] issue food, as they were the type who would go home and say we ate too well."

By Rebecca Frankel
Best Defense Chief Canine Correspondent

Meet Sgt. Jack, a German Shepherd and military dog on deployment in Tikrit, Iraq. I spoke with Jack's handler Sergeant Christopher Pauley, this week who called in from his base, COP Speicher. Though he and Jack have only been in Iraq since October, the pair has been together for the last 18 months.

Before Iraq, Jack and Pauley, who's originally from Ohio, were stationed in Japan. Jack is just at the beginning of his war-dog career -- this is only his first deployment. Sgt. Pauley was an MP before becoming a working dog handler with the 88th Military Police Department, and Jack is his first working dog. I asked Pauley if he's noticed any changes in Jack since they deployed, or if their relationship changed in the new environment. It had, Pauley told me, but for the better. "He listens better over here because I'm the only one taking care of him," Pauley said. "Our bond has gotten better."

Read on

Here is one way to observe Memorial Day: Help Iraqi refugees as they settle down in this country. To do that, I've collected a bunch of recent books, signed by the authors, and am selling them off for $50 apiece. Send me a note telling me which books you want -- the e-mail address is over there on the right near my thumbnail bio. I will tell you if they are still available, and I also will tell you how to proceed. (Don't worry -- the checks won't be made out to me, and I will mail the books to you at my own expense.) Or, do all your Christmas shopping in one shot, and pre-emptively buy for all 11 signed books for $400.

Here are the books:

David Bellavia: House to House

Andrew Exum: This Man's Army

Nathaniel Fick: One Bullet Away

David Finkel: The Good Soldiers

Barton Gellman: Angler - The Cheney Vice Presidency

H.R. McMaster: Dereliction of Duty

John Heilemann and Mark Halperin: Game Change

Plus, all four of my books:

Fiasco

The Gamble

A Soldier's Duty

Making the Corps

UPDATE: Wow. I didn't realize what sort of demand there would be. All the books are sold, many times over. I am surprised at the number of people who offered to buy the whole set. I am e-mailing the winner right now. I will also sort out the rest of the purchase requests for individual books. I have lots of copies of my books, at least. Thanks to all who responded!