instances.  Of course, we claim that delay is overcome with technology, by, for instance, streaming live video feed right into the White House.  But can Barack Obama make a better tactical decision than the man on the ground?  Usually he cannot.  The argument that he can is often couched in terms of intelligence, the concept that he has a superior strategic vision because he has access to more information.  Fine -- but what that means, especially in a president who skips his intelligence briefings, is that he has to gather that information.  That is, call a meeting or let his national security chief do so, and so there is that delay again.  In fact, these meetings in the midst of a crisis always entail delay, because these well-fed types in thousand-dollar suits ordering coffee from the hovering White House steward are often lawyers, and lawyers typically counsel delay.  But mostly they aren't the ones being shot at. And so you get the phenomenon where the entire chain of command begins to focus on passing on only the information they believe will shorten the delay.  For example, the debacle in Somalia (Black Hawk Down) during the Clinton years can be laid at the door of the command having to submit their operational plan to Washington for approval.  Why?  You've got professional soldiers educated and trained and obviously thought worthy of promotion from second lieutenant during those careers up through the Army's many rank levels of increasing responsibility, and they're on the