mr. colby? guest: i think it is important that.m certainly for it is important to emphasize that the united states -- and i have participated in these semi-official discussions, unofficial -- discussions with china at least since about ep3 incident in 2001 where an american aircraft was forced down. often, it is the chinese will haven't been particularly interested in these communication mechanisms. i believe there are some between military commanders in the united states and china. china has to pick up the phone. miscalculation and accidents are not the problem. it is hard to find examples of conflicts that have arisen by accident. during the cold war, there were accidents, american planes that went down i believe in the communist territory without it escalating. countries usually escalate because they are prepared to and when they see an opportunity. so i think it is important, but i don't think we should focus on that too much. host: elbridge colby is a former deputy assistant secretary of de

mr. colby, you have quite an impressive resume.irst question for you, when we were making the decision to go into iraq, was bush misled about wmds, that would be one question i have. even on the day of 9/11, he had a real strong -- he was verbally telling aides for this to lead into saddam somehow. where does that come from? you were close, you are there, can you talk about it? host: brad, thanks for calling. guest: thanks, brad. it is a great question. you may have seen in my background that i served on the commission set up to look into why the iraqi intelligence was wrong. this may be sounds like monday morning quarterbacking, but i always thought the iraq war was a mistake but i don't think president bush acted on bad faith. i think he and vice president cheney and others seem to have believed that the possibility of a rock reconstituting a nuclear and other wmd program was enough to necessitate an invasion of the country, and i think they were more optimistic about how it would go. and they probably also thought that it would,

mr. colby?st: i think it is important that.m certainly for it is important to emphasize that the united states -- and i have participated in these semi-official discussions, unofficial -- discussions with china at least since about ep3 incident in 2001 where an american aircraft was forced down. often, it is the chinese will haven't been particularly interested in these communication mechanisms. i believe there are some between military commanders in the united states and china. china has to pick up the phone. miscalculation and accidents are not the problem. it is hard to find examples of conflicts that have arisen by accident. during the cold war, there were accidents, american planes that went down i believe in the communist territory without it escalating. countries usually escalate because they are prepared to and when they see an opportunity. so i think it is important, but i don't think we should focus on that too much. host: elbridge colby is a former deputy assistant secretary of defens

mr. greenhouse, how old is your son, cello?" to which bernard laughed, winked, and responded, "250 years old." i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for joining us on "strange inheritance." and don't forget. you can't take it with you. do you have a "strange inheritance" story you'd like to share with us? we'd love to hear it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. >> an automotive classic... >> oh, my. it really moves. >> well, it's pretty quick. >> what is it about the corvette that has captured america? >> you have lamborghinis, and you got ferraris, but the american sports car has always been the corvette. >> it's the dream that keeps a soldier going... >> do you think that helped him get through very difficult times at war? >> absolutely. >> ...the decision that vexes his heir... >> it was the most difficult thing i've ever done in my life. >> ...the ultimate for vette collectors... >> it was an urban legend that there was this impeccably original, pristinely kept 1967 corvette. >> we got three, four... >> ...and a mystery on wheels. >> something is fishy because that's not there. [ doo