The top half of Major General Douglas Stone’s head is covered with black hair, slicked back a la Gordon Gecko, a businessman’s coif that suggests money or power or both. The bottom half is a ring of grey, shaved in a severe military fade. It is a dual-use cut: in a suit he is all business; with a helmet on, he is a Marine Commander.

Seated in the back of a black hawk helicopter, shrouded in kevlar body armour and desert fatigues, he appears the marine. To his right sits his personal security detail, a grave-looking fellow with a Bowie knife and two shotgun rounds strapped to his flak jacket. To his left sits a leather attache case.