See, I'd invade Kamchatka

And so it was in the days of my boss' college experience that Dubya lived also in the dorms at Yale. And lo, there were final exams, and yea, there was gamesmanship.

So, it turns out that the 'Merican president was a year behind my boss at Yale. And apparently, he was the kid who spent the study period before finals playing Risk. Now, there are so many good metaphors here that it's almost making my brain overheat. So, we'll stick with the easiest one for now.

As anyone who has played Risk knows, it's a pretty black-and-white game. It's not the game of world leadership, it's the game of world conquest. Force trumps strategy when the dice roll your way, and unlikely maneuvers can pay off if you have enough willingness to go all in and keep betting on sheer probability. That's how my uncle once managed to conquer the world from a nice, secure base in Australia.

However, as anyone who has played Risk also knows, the Middle East is the worst place to start your world takeover. Unlike some more friendly venues, when you start in the Middle East, you have enemies (or, in a less dramatic sense, other players) at every conceivable turn. It's nearly impossible to defend, since you have no safe place to put your back, and you have to marshal resources on all your borders. Sound familiar, anyone?

It seems that Dubya's penchant for Risk has carried through to today, but now he's playing it with a much bigger board. Perhaps we'd all be better off if he'd spent that time studying, or at least playing Diplomacy, instead.