And now let's hear from my friend Jeff Stern, drummer and percussionist.

My name is Jeffrey Stern.

I'm a drummer and a percussionist, and it has been such a pleasure to get to play Dimitri's music on Shades of Elegance.

He's a great composer that blends the music from all over the globe in a very organic fashion.

His music tells a story and I tried to complement that in my drum tracks.

I wish Dimitri and Shades of Elegance all the success and I really look forward to getting to play his music again in the future.

Yeah.

Right.

Then, I mean, part of, part of the way I thought to try to make this so, you know, it was engaging to read and interesting rather than just, rather than just sort of a, a military history, was to tell individual kind of character-driven stories about a conflict we all know about, but an angle that most of us don't know about.

I, I, before looking into this, had no idea, and this was probably something that you were very aware of, but I had no idea that there was this strike that, m-m-that came very close to killing Saddam, which would have meant arguably avoiding the rest of Shock and Awe and everything that derives from that.

I mean, it's inter-interesting counterfactual.

Arguably, we wouldn't really have ISIS.

We wouldn't have, you know, an ascendant Iran.

So how does his story tie to the evolution of the, what you call generically the warhead? And if you could just tell us from, experientially, from who he is, you know, as a younger person and then who he becomes when he becomes, um, the bomber in the Manchester bombing in 2017 at the Ariana Grande concert.

So I'm kind of curious, you know, w- what's your view on that? Is it one? Is it the other? Is it a mix? How do you, how do you come about that?

Yeah.

I, well, I think both are true.

I think it's, it's probably more important to focus on the latter, because I think the risk is that the weapon, this capability can kind of argue for itself.

It can sort of argue for its own use.

You know, there's this, a bad actor overseas.

Well, we've got this magic bullet, and we won't hurt anyone nearby, and it can kind of lead you.

Do you see that as like distinct offset strategies, or have you found a way that it's all connected?

So I'm kind of curious, you know, w- what's your view on that? Is it one? Is it the other? Is it a mix? How do you, how do you come about that?

Yeah.

I, well, I think both are true.

I think it's, it's probably more important to focus on the latter, because I think the risk is that the weapon, this capability can kind of argue for itself.

It can sort of argue for its own use.

You know, there's this, a bad actor overseas.

Well, we've got this magic bullet, and we won't hurt anyone nearby, and it can kind of lead you.

Do you see that as, like, distinct offset strategies, or have you found a way that it's all connected?