Now, the first rule of war is that the first casualty is truth - but if this happened, we are contemplating one of the major events of our lifetime.

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And now to less jaw-dropping matters:

Never trust the smartest guy in the room.

There is a type of person - usually, I think, a man - who combines hyper-intelligence with daftness. They presume that the great skills they have in one field gives them insights into many other, unrelated fields.

They have great gifts but their arrogance makes them over-reach. It's why business or military leaders rarely make good political leaders (apologies to General/President Eisenhower but not to Mr Trump).

But a great ability to make money, for example, does not make for intelligent political decisions. Many Brits would confirm this at the moment. The country's immensely rich treasurer is currently failing to understand why tax cuts for the rich (some of them his pals with whom he enjoyed champagne after his budget) don't play well among those struggling to pay everyday bills.

Or take Elon Musk.

The man is clearly a genius. If we head off global warming, the way he made electric cars commercially viable will be a large part of the achievement.

But stick to mathematics and engineering and coding, Elon. Stay away from politics. (Thank goodness he can't run for president because he was born outside the United States.)

A few days ago, he Tweeted to his 107.7 million followers a poll with choices:

"Ukraine-Russia Peace:

I have no idea what the result was, and that's because Twitter polls don't add up to a row of beans. They are not worth the paper they aren't written on.

But the idle piece of amusement does have consequences. It might, for example, undermine support for Ukraine.

The phrase "smartest guys in the room" came to prominence with the American company Enron (made famous in a film called Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room).

Enron's chief executive Jeff Skilling (Harvard MBA) was without doubt very smart. He devised ingenious ways of making money - or appearing to make money - by setting up intricate financial mechanisms. When they unraveled, the seventh biggest company in America turned into a bankrupt nothing - and a by-word for fraud.

Enron was the precursor to a lot of financial innovations by other "smartest guys in the room". In 2008, we felt the result.

Being financially smart does not mean being wise. It is why the jury system and democracy are so important.

Sometimes ordinary people have insights that those with rarefied intellects lack.

HAVE YOUR SAY: I'd like to hear your thoughts on the smartest guys in the room. Do email: echidna@theechidna.com.au

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

THEY SAID IT:

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." - Charles Darwin.

"I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the telephone directory than by the Harvard University faculty." - conservative commentator William F Buckley.

And finally, on my misuse of the word "score" (meaning 20), Jim, and George (note the Oxford comma) emailed about the Gettysburg Address, so here it is in all its short magnificence. Read it to yourself (or others):

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." - Abraham Lincoln

YOU SAID IT:

On ageing, Mark wrote: "My father's favourite saying was 'Old enough to know better, young enough to do it again'."

On typos, Martin wrote: "My first job in Oz when I migrated from UK in 1968 was as a proof reader (remember them?) for the Geelong Advertiser. I managed to save the head proof reader who was about to let through the banner headline 'Train's again today' (following a strike)."

On honesty, Darrell wrote: "Every child born onto the planet is honest! It's just the programming and conditioning that follows that's let society down!"

Jim said: "My experience is that the vast majority of Australians are honest at a personal level. But politicians on duty are another matter where factions and concreted-on odd beliefs matter more than thinking. Drat!"

Most controversially, I did ask whether the apostrophe in Reader's Digest was in the right place. You had views.

Tina got it right: "If they regard their readers as individuals, then yes, the apostrophe is in the right place."

Peter ploughs a similar furrow: "It depends on how ambitious is the firm; Reader's if it aims for a customer base of one, Readers' if it hopes for two or more."

Jeanette had no doubt: "I get emails every week from the Reader's Digest and, yes, that apostrophe is in the correct place."

But Carolyn says: "No, I would say no apostrophe is needed."