By all accounts, General Welsh is perhaps the most respected leader in the Air Force today.

Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey is getting an appetite for political controversy.

Thomas Donnelly, Director of AEI's Center for Defense Studies, is available to comment on Gen. David Petraeus's assessment of the situation in Afghanistan.

Along with replacing Secretary Gates, choosing a new chairman-the president's senior military adviser-will be among the most important decisions Obama will make. He needs the best advice, not his favorite advice.

Mr Obama's message to Gen David Petraeus was clear: time is up. Ten years, a trillion dollars and 1,600 American casualties later, the White House is essentially abandoning the attempt to build law and order in Afghanistan.

USIP has been engaged in serious and risky work, hand in hand with our military, in Iraq, Afghanistan and other trouble spots. It is engaged in mediation, nation building and other efforts to reduce conflict and save lives.

Engagement with enemies remains President Obama's wonder drug, but the only path to victory in Afghanistan is to decisively defeat the Taliban leadership.

Anbar's citizens needed protection before they would give their "hearts and minds."