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General David Petraeus is arguably the most consequential and renowned American military leader since World War II. His resignation because of an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, has shocked Americans. L’affaire Petraeus has two parts that must be separated: his sexual relationship with Broadwell itself, and the link between the timing of the announcement of his resignation and the Benghazi attacks on September 11.Here I will focus on the former. What led a successful general at the height of his power and influence to have an affair that undid all he had accomplished?In 1993, Dean Ludwig and...

Defense News Once again, the U.S. Army is trying to learn lessons from the last war and apply them to future situations. Recent exercises at Fort Polk, La., emphasized short deployments with limited objectives: defend a consulate (!), secure the flow of energy resources and similar situations.  "My premise is that the world is going to get more complex, it's going to get more difficult," Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters. "We're going to need leaders who can be very adaptive."The United States has had adaptive leaders since the Christmas rout of the Hessians at Trenton, but the real...

Here's the essay.

The most successful Republican presidential candidate of the past half century— Ronald Reagan, who was elected and reelected with landslide victories— bore little resemblance to the moderate candidates that Republican conventional wisdom depicts as the key to victory, even though most of these moderate candidates have in fact gone down to defeat. One of the biggest differences between Reagan and these latter-day losers was that Reagan paid great attention to explaining his policies and values. He was called "the great communicator," but much more than a gift for words was involved. The issues that defined Reagan's vision were things he...

It's barely been a week since President Obama's re-election, and some people can't believe, truly can't believe, that things didn't go their way. As of Wednesday morning, 37 states had posted petitions on the White House website to secede from the United States of America. (Some not-so-brilliant citizens of Georgia and South Carolina actually have two different secession postings each, but I'm counting those knuckleheads only once.) I'm sorry to report that this not-so-illustrious group includes California, where nearly 7,000 citizens have signed a petition quoting the Declaration of Independence and insisting on the right to set up their own...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Hillary's in Australia. She's sipping wine, and she's over there with Panetta. And you know who else is in Australia? The Woz. Steve Wozniak. He's establishing residence in Australia. Look, I think there's some people who know things we don't. Hillary's in Australia, Panetta is in Australia, and they're not on their way back. Wozniak is establishing residence. His home in the Bay Area is up for sale. He says he hopes he's able to maintain a home in California, but he's not sure. In addition to all this, folks, Obama today, it's amazing, the first term...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, Obama's meeting with the CEOs. This is being portrayed as Obama wanting to have dialogue. "He really wants to talk to these guys. He wants to learn from them. He wants to work together with them in order to come up with mutually agreeable policies, 'cause he's open to anything that will work." Ahem. Instead, what's gonna happen is Obama's bringing the guys in there. He's speaking from a teleprompter and he's gonna read them the way world works. He's gonna tell them the way life is. He's gonna tell 'em what their future is. He's...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, you're very much aware, I never make this program about me. Everybody else does that. I never do. But I have to tell you, remember way, way, way, way back when this Benghazi thing first come up, I compared it to Watergate, and I said it was worse than Watergate. Nobody died in Watergate. That is now popping up all over the place out there, people comparing this Benghazi thing to Watergate. You know, here we've got four dead Americans and we still do not have an explanation for this, and it's morphed into...

I have been accosted by numerous friends and acquaintances recently, Barack Obama acolytes all, with a smug attitude of superiority concerning the re-election of the President. As though the election was a personal contest between myself and them, and they won. No American citizen is the winner of this election. I have pointed out, especially to my fellow workers, that their choice will bring about a reduced work week for all of us, to 29 hours, due to the onerous regulations of the Obamacare law. We will have less money in our pocket. (1) I have pointed out that we...

How long does it take to tell the president that his CIA director is under investigation? Here is the answer Americans are now supposed to believe: longer than it took for the White House to discover that a YouTube video did not inspire the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. In June 2010, President Obama fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the U.S. commander in Afghanistan because McChrystal had criticized civilian administration officials in the presence of a writer from Rolling Stone. Obama immediately named Gen. David Petraeus — hero of the Iraq surge — the...

Recently, Ann Coulter wrote a controversial column suggesting that numerous Republican losses in the 2012 election cycle could be tied to the GOP stance on abortion. After lamenting the problem, she suggested a solution: the GOP should officially abandon its opposition to the so-called rape exception to a ban on abortion. Ann's position on this matter is wrong for three reasons. First, it is unprincipled. Second, it will not be received with the popular support she envisions. Third, it is not the best political response to the problem. After elaborating on each problem associated with Ann's position, I propose an...

The conservative Gotterdammerung is finally here. "Like dazed survivors in a ravaged city, America's conservatives are wailing and beating their collective breasts," opines the Economist's "Lexington" columnist. "A leading conservative thinker," asked by the Economist to "list today's conservative ideas, laughs bitterly and replies, 'Are there any?'" Former Reaganite Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.) laments in the conservative journal Policy Review, "I have never been so concerned about the future of conservative ideas." A Washington Post columnist announced that "the long descent of the Republican Party into irrelevance, defeat, and perhaps eventual disappearance" has finally begun. William Kristol of the Weekly...

Liberals do not grasp the distinction between Ronald Reagan and (either) George Bush. This blind spot creates a massive confusion and hazard to their ambitions. Obama defeated neither the Reagan Narrative nor Team Reagan. Team Bush appropriated, and then marginalized, both. Obama beat Team Bush, not Team Reagan. The implications are huge. There was a touchy relationship between President Reagan and his Vice President George H.W. Bush. They were rivals during the primaries. Bush attacked the Reagan economic agenda as “voodoo economics.” Bush served faithfully as VP for eight years but Reagan and Bush never warmed to one another. There...

What does Barack Obama’s re-election as President mean for the future of the United States and for the President’s place in history? Both liberals celebrating his electoral victory, and conservatives who fear for the future of the country, may be surprised by the thoughtful, serious and provocative answer to this question in: I Am the Change, Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism by Charles Kesler, best known as the editor of the Claremont Review of Books, but also a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and a Senior Fellow at the Claremont Institute. Full disclosure, this columnist is...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Valerie Jarrett’s Radical RootsPosted By John Perazzo On November 14, 2012 @ 12:45 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 3 Comments It was recently revealed that for several months, President Obama’s closest and most trusted advisor, Valerie Jarrett, has been leading secret negotiations with representatives of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, in an effort to develop normalized relations between the U.S. and Iran. Hallmarks of such a relationship would include the commencement of direct airline flights between American cities and Tehran; the granting of entry permits for citizens of each country to visit the other;...

The Republican Party went into the 2012 elections with a number of handicaps. One of the biggest of these handicaps was that it genuinely believed in a single country defined by the American Dream of family values, hard work and national greatness. The Democratic Party, which scored decisive victories across the country, never believed in any such thing, though its leading lights, like Obama, occasionally paid lip service to the idea as a sop to older white voters who would have been turned off by the 2012 version of Obama sounding like the 2002 version of Obama. Where the Republican...

The reality show that’s become our government isn’t just embarrassing, crass, dangerous and opportunistic- it also gets really great ratings. Must see G-O-V.   What fiscal cliff? Have you seen the latest episode of the Benghazi Triangle?Criminals please pay attention. Learning how to fly planes into buildings is a shrugworthy event with the FBI, but don’t you dare email Tampa-Socialite-Jill Kelley. Because she might feel threatened if she’s told electronically that she standing too close to your guy.   Also, taking off your shirt and snapping a few candid photos is OK too- if you have the proper FBI credentials. With...

In 1968, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army insurgents rose up against the American and South Vietnamese forces in the Tet Offensive. They were wiped out, yet seven years later they were in control of the country. There are lessons there for us conservatives. Conservatives, as opposed to the Republicans who partially overlap them on the Venn diagram of American politics, need a strategy. Strategy differs from mere tactics – it is a synchronization of potential ways (think courses of action) and available means (think resources) to achieve a long term end. Tactics are the techniques supporting the strategy....

Mark Thompson, a former director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation, began his new job Monday as president and CEO of The New York Times. The lack of embarrassment was remarkable. Thompson claimed he was the worst kind of ignorant buffoon, knowing nothing about the massive sex-abuse scandal -- and then its censorship -- that's rocking the BBC. Scotland Yard has been conducting a criminal investigation into allegations of child sex abuse by the late disc jockey and TV personality Jimmy Savile over six decades, describing him as a "predatory sex offender." In mid-October, the metropolitan police stated they were pursuing...

Here's a which-is-better question for you. Suppose a New Jersey motel room rented for $125 a night prior to Hurricane Sandy's devastation. When the hurricane hits, a husband, wife and their two youngsters might seek the comfort of renting two adjoining rooms. However, when they arrive at the motel, they find that rooms now rent for $250. At that price, they might decide to make do with one room. In my book, that would be wonderful. That decision would make a room available for another family who had to evacuate Sandy's wrath. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and others...