General David Petraeus faces the Senate Armed Services Committee today for confirmation hearings. The General is expected to take command of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan — after his predecessor Gen. Stanley McChrystal lost his post for making disparaging remarks about the Obama administration in Rolling Stone Magazine. How will General Petraeus do in the hearings, and what challenges does he face in his new position? 

Corruption is rampant in Afghanistan. It is one of the biggest problems faced by coalition forces, and citizens there worry about corruption in the government corruption and the bribes they have to pay in their day-to-day lives. Earlier this week counterinsurgency expert David Kilcullen spoke to the Takeaway about these challenges. "Most importantly is the issue of corruption and abuse on the part of the Afghan government. If we don't deal with that, no amount of military changing the deck chairs is going to fix this problem," he said.

President Obama on Tuesday relieved Gen. Stanley McChrystal of his duties in Afghanistan, less than 48 hours after it was revealed that McChrystal and his aides made disparaging remarks about high-ranking members of the Obama administration to a freelance journalist from Rolling Stone. McChrystal will be replaced by Gen. David Petraeus. We want to know what you think. Should Gen. Stanley McChrystal have kept his job?

Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. David Petraeus on Wednesday defended President Obama's plan to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July of 2011. Gen. Petraeus faced tough questions from lawmakers, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who worry that Afghanistan will view our drawdown as abandonment. "We are sounding an uncertain trumpet to our friends and to our enemies. They believe we are leaving as of July 2011," McCain said.

The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 16-12 on Thursday evening to allow the Pentagon to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell - the law that forbids gay, lesbian and bisexual servicemen and women from serving openly.

By some counts the US has lost more than 1,000 lives in Operation Enduring Freedom — the umbrella term for the war in Afghanistan. The latest casualty according to the Department of Defense brings their count to the cusp of 1000.  Staff Sgt. William S. Ricketts, 27, from Corinth, Miss. was killed when insurgents attacked his unit in Bala Murghab, Afghanistan last week. But there is a name, and a story behind each number.

U.S. and NATO forces are approaching the campaign in Southern Afghanistan in a novel way — from the allies' struggle to win the hearts and minds of Afghan civilians in the region, to the dropping of leaflets urging the Taliban to leave the area. New York Times Pentagon correspondent Thom Shanker looks at how the strategy of this military campaign differs from others.

With the recent announcement that the administration may repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," there has been much talk about issues of equality when it comes to the military. But another another group is also struggling for equal military opportunities: women. The current policy held by the Department of Defense does not allow women in ground units where they might engage in direct combat.

Colombia will sign a deal with the United States today to give the American military access to seven of its military bases. The deal has been in the works for months, and it has raised concerns among several South American countries. BBC correspondent Jeremy McDermott joins us from Bogota, Columbia, to talk about the implications of this deal.

Proportionately, more female soldiers work in counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan than in other parts of the military. So what's behind the numbers, and how can the military best use women for those operations? We look at the military jobs women may be better at than their male counterparts with Army Reserve Maj. Paula Broadwell, researcher at the Center for Public Leadership; and retired Army Sgt. Genevieve Chase, founder of American Women Veterans.

This week will mark the eight-year anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, and the casualty rate is ticking upward. The United States lost eight troops in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, lending more urgency to the debate over what the Obama administration's next steps will be in Afghanistan.

We talk to Andrew Bacevich, professor of International Relations and History at Boston University. He is author of "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism"; and Marvin Weinbaum, a scholar at the Middle East Institute and a former State Department analyst on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that it will not review the Pentagon's controversial "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy, which requires U.S. service members to keep their sexual orientation under wraps. In 2000, the UK armed forces integrated gay and lesbian service members nearly overnight with some surprising results. The Takeaway talks to Retired Lieutenant Commander Craig Jones of the British Royal Navy. He was a fierce advocate of British military integration.

Sudan's troubled Darfur region has been in turmoil for years in a dispute that has killed over 300,000 people and displaced more than 2.2 million. Now there is word that the Sudanese government has signed a tentative agreement that could pave the way towards a cessation in violence. For more we are joined by the BBC's Karen Allen in Nairobi.

Five years ago, then-General Eric Shinseki made headlines for clashing with the Bush administration on Iraq war policy. His now-famous statement on the numbers of soldiers required for the Iraq was belittled and eventually he was ousted over it. Fast forward to today, where he's expected to have a smooth Senate confirmation hearing in his bid to lead the Veterans Affairs Department under Barack Obama. For more, we go to Larry Korb, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration.

"That would be taking the catastrophe of the last seven years and enshrining it in our law." — Ben Wizner on creating a new "National Security Court" to replace Guantanamo Bay