ADMIRAL Mike Mullen has some unusual credentials for the highest ranking military officer in the US. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is the son of a Hollywood spin doctor who was press agent for some big-name movie stars in the 1960s. Mullen says his father taught him the art of crafting a message, though it didn't seem much help at the US Naval Academy where, in 1968, he graduated 611th out of 836. As a young lieutenant four years later, Mullen was given command of the gasoline tanker USS Noxubee. He promptly ran it into a buoy,...