I'm thoroughly enjoying your posts and contributions in class, Severin. Your presence is particularly intriguing because you are in training to be a military man yourself, and thus can offer us an inside perspective. Most impressive, however, is how open minded you've been. Foster that and you will be rewarded.

With regard to Patton, I can't help but feeling that the rhetoric of the opening speech is one of arrogance. That, as you rightly pointed out, no man is larger than life. That statements like "America will never lose a war" are symbolic of the kind of imperialistic arrogance that led to the great tragedy of Vietnam, and now, Iraq.

You also qualify your thought that "Bush is a bad man." I'm not sure that statement needs to be qualified.

One more thing: a sign of a great mind is one that makes connections between disparate subjects and fields of inquiry. If things are beginning to appear cohesive, well, then, maybe you've got a great mind on your shoulders?