Concerning the Great Helmsman (barf), he was like many Chinese kids who knew or read The Three Kingdoms. It the classic Chinese story of three warring kingdoms, their generals, their strategy and how they fought one another. The other classic that we all read today is Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Mao also read that.

One of the best military leaders in American history who was completely unschooled is Nathan Bedford Forrest. He had a fifth grade education and rose to become one of the best cavalrymen in the Confederacy. Of course, his reputation is tarnished for having been the head of the KKK.

Even before Forrest, a self-taught (he read a lot of books) officer who lost every battle but won the campaign was Nathaniel Greene. He was sent to take over the Department of the Carolinas after Benjamin Lincoln surrendered one army at Charleston and his successor, Horatio Gates outran his defeated army at Guilford Court House. Greene was sent down with little resources and had to rebuild the Southern Army. He did, but lost every battle. Despite this, he managed to recapture North & South Carolina for the Colonies. Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah! Washington choose wisely.

I'm not nearly as history savvy as I would like to be, but I have seen some awesome military leaders up close - it was their ability to inspire soldiers to go beyond whatthey thought was possible, their knowledge of technology and how to use it and their uncompromising belief in getting the job done ahead of schedule that made them stand out to me (they are not name, nor will you find them in any history books, they are simply professional soldiers).

One thing I've always enjoyed pondering is how some of the historical leaders would do out of their time - can you imagine Genghis Khan at the head of SS Liebstandarte, or Nelson at Salamis, the possibilities are endless. I should take to writing a book about this stuff, get it out of my head and on paper.

I shouldn't forget Daniel Boone's cousin, Daniel Morgan. As a teamster during the French & Indian War, he was whipped for striking a British officer. He led a rifle company at the Siege of Boston and after the 1st Pennsylvania was disbanded (their term of enlistment had expired), Morgan was asked by Washington to raise a rifle corps. He selected marksmen from various regiments to form Morgan's Rifle Corps. They fought successfully at the two battles at Saratoga and were instrumental in helping defeat Burgoyne. Morgan was later sent south to help Greene and at Cowpens, he took an inferior force onto unfavorable grounds and defeated the supposedly superior British Legion of Banastre Tarleton. Morgan was a natural fighter who knew how to inspire and lead men.

"Hitler was a great military leader,"

Tell me you're joking. Please. Look at every military decision Hitler made as he was TRYING to be a military leader, and you'll see that in most of the important decisions, he was wrong. Hitler was about as great a military leader as Saddam Hussein was.

And with the same result.