Robert Strange must have had trouble sleeping.

When I was somewhat younger, all I really knew about Robert S. McNamara was that he featured prominently in a Simon and Garfunkel song. Last Friday I went to see The Fog of War, a new documentary about his life, and last night to an event on Berkeley Campus where he talked with the filmmaker, Errol Morris. In the film, McNamara comments that he learned in his days as Secretary of Defense to "never answer the question that was asked of you. Answer the one you wish had been asked." Last night he did just that. If you have a fast enough connection, I encourage you to watch the webcast of the event.

McNamara doesn't deserve our attention because he has been such an influential individual in 20th century history, or because he's managed to survive to great age. He deserves it because he so fiercely wants us to listen to the lessons he's learned from the mistakes he (and others around him) made in the last sixty years.