Retired Gen. David Petraeus and Michael O’Hanlon are correct that we should protect funding for the State Department and USAID, because doing so enhances our national security. But neither Gates nor Petraeus and O’Hanlon are willing to reduce defense spending in order to provide additional funds for the soft power supplied by State and USAID.

But the truth is that there is no real work/private life separation for CIA spooks, Foreign Service diplomats and anyone else with a top-secret security clearance that gives them access to classified information. As the director of the CIA, Petraeus is a huge fish, but even much lower level government employees have seen their careers go up in smoke based upon allegations of infidelity.

During Clinton’s visit, there were some disturbing developments as well. By the time the conditions were ripe for “nearly perfect” public diplomacy, the Turkish media was forced to focus on another issue, which unfortunately made Clinton’s “smiles” and “blue-pant suit” of secondary importance.

Today marks the 36th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, a conflict that claimed the lives of more than 58,000 Americans and continues to affect the United States, including its military leaders and current wartime operations.

But no one, no matter how brilliant, can achieve the impossible. And the problem in Afghanistan is the impossibility of the mission. The United States is pursuing a nation-building strategy with counterinsurgency tactics – that is, building a nation at the barrel end of a gun.