The truth is Petraeus is getting off easy. Sex has a provided him with cover that conceals his real record worthy of apology, explanation, and contrition; a record no number of shiny medals can camouflage that has hurt America’s national security while destroying and continuing to destroy military families.

Listen here.

“We have to let these guys go all the time no matter what they do, and then we find them trying to hit us again. But if they think I’ve screwed up once, then [the military will] have no problem throwing me to the wolves,” Brooks said.

But first, putting aside the White House PR war, the critical question to address is how has the PR offensive in Afghanistan and the new rules of engagement under McChrystal affected the troops on the ground?

“I am officially announcing that Iran has joined the group of those countries which have nuclear technology.”

Also of concern, the members said, were reports that troops are being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan “straight from boot camp” without enough stateside training.

“Tora Bora Revisited: How We Failed to Get Bin Laden and Why it Matters Today.”

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Latest on the War on Terror– oops — overseas contingency operations.

“While the Obama violinists’ supple wrists magically fiddle with their bows, the firefights continue in Afghanistan.”

Today on what was “one of the deadliest days for US troops,” according to the US military, where 14 American warriors lost their lives in a series of helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, Senator John Kerry spoke before a live audience at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington …

Peter Bergen reports a sobering read at the New Republic about the state of affairs in Afghanistan. Winning in Afghanistan is critical to defeating Al Qaeda.
And yet, as President Obama weighs whether or not to send more troops to Afghanistan, the connection between the region and Al Qaeda has suddenly become a matter of hot dispute in Washington. We are told that September 11 was as much a product of plotting in Hamburg as in Afghanistan; that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are quite distinct groups, and that we can …

“I learned that the goal of the hard-line Taliban was far more ambitious.”

As years roll by and more soldiers have done two, three, four or even five long tours, writing about war has changed.