The WikiLeaks documents have far reaching consequences in Afghanistan. The Taliban claims that they are going to track down informants named in the WikiLeaks documents, putting many lives at risk. Also, the evidence that Pakistan has worked with the Taliban has emboldened the Afghan government to come out harshly against Pakistan.

The American obsession with technology is often described as driving the U.S. economy. Certainly the tech boom of the 1990’s rippled across the economy until the bubble burst in 2000. By 2010 technology gadgets have acquired the allure of fashion objects. The high mark-up of high tech devices like cell phones and laptops, desktop computers, iPads and other baubles has come with considerable outsourcing of assembly jobs to lower wage manufacturing centers in Mexico, China, Taiwan and other locations. The fashion-ization of tech culture has also come with the sourcing of raw materials in conflict zones like Congo.

Deep within the 2,300 page legislation on financial reform that President Obama signed into law last week is a provision that pertains to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The new financial regulation law will require thousands of U.S. companies to disclose whether their products contain minerals from rebel-controlled mines in Congo. Many of these minerals, like tin, tungsten, gold and tantalum end up in our laptops, cell phones and other technologies; and these mines are helping to finance the ongoing conflict in Congo.

Richard Oppel correspondent for The New York Times reports from Kabul, where he attended a press conference about the released documents. Although the documents did criticize Afghan government and security forces, a spokesman for President Karzai focused on the civilian casualities and the complicity of the spy agency. Oppel says he asked if there was anything that angered the president in the documents and was told that there wasn't.

Oppel takes a closer look at the documents. He also follows the story of the two American sailors captured in Afghanistan by the Taliban.

Two U.S. navy sailors went missing on friday when they were driving in a Taliban-held area in Eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban claims they kidnapped both of them and killed one. They are offering to exchange the body of the dead sailor with one of the prisoners being held by the U.S. It was also reported that the United States braodcast an offer of $20,000 for information leading to the return of the soldiers. Anand Gopal, reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, has more from Afghanistan.

Secret military documents released by WikiLeaks, and published in The New York Times yesterday, show that Pakistan's intelligence service has been aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan. These documents solidify what many Americans fighting the war, and those homeside have suspected and feared for some time. Peter Galbraith, former United Nations Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, looks more closely at the documents.

As many as two thousand members of Gold Star families – families who lost members while serving our country – convened at Arlington cemetery's “Tomb of the Unknowns” this weekend, to pay tribute to military men and women killed in action. This weekend’s events mark the largest gathering of such families in the country’s history.

For geographic, political and strategic reasons, Pakistan has been a key player in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. However, new military documents leaked by Wikileaks.org and published by The New York Times have raised the question: just whose side is Pakistan's intelligence agency on?

Today the U.S. hands over a prison in Iraq and it’s barely worth a headline. The time that has passed since the U.S. invaded Iraq has created some scars and healed others. I’m struck by how much this milestone conveys the mystery of what the Iraq war has meant to the U.S. What is its legacy to a generation of young people, policymakers, and citizens? Is Iraq a failure, a success, or something different altogether?

The United States transferred the last American-run prison to Iraq in a significant move as the U.S. winds down its war there. The transfer of Camp Cropper, renamed Karkh Prison, also marks the end of a troubling chapter in America's relationship with Iraq, marred by the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is set to issue new rules, as early as Monday, which should simplify the way veterans receive compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is one of the most common psychological injuries afflicting veterans today and creating new regulations for treatment is an attempt to break some of the barriers to treatment.

General David Petraeus was confirmed by the Senate yesterday as General Stanley McChrystal's replacement as top commander for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. A demoralized army, an inept Afghan government seen as hopelessly corrupt, increasingly skeptical international partners, a disinterested American public, a report that American taxpayer money has inadvertently been funneled to Afghan warlords, and a new torrent of violence resulting in 100 military casualities over that last month are among the panoply of challenges Petraeus faces when he touches down in Afghanistan.

Taliban and NATO forces clashed in eastern Afghanistan this morning. Militants set off a car bomb and stormed an entrance to an airport used by Afghan and international forces. BBC Afghan service reporter, Inayatulhaq Yasini reports that the violence has ended now, but was partially due to insurgents taking advantage of good weather and conditions that make it easier to carry out attacks.

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? 

In April, British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, who commands NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, proposed creating an award for "courageous restraint." As avoiding the loss of civilian life is a cornerstone of the coalition's counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan, does rewarding restraint makes sense?  Is restraint a courageous act of discipline under fire or does it put our troops in danger? 

On Facebook, Takeaway listener, Rusty Roy wrote:

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.

In 2009, the Pentagon lifted a ban that forbade members of the news media from covering the dignified transfer of the remains of U.S. servicemen and women at Dover Air Force Base. On April 5th, 2009, around forty reporters and photographers were present for the return of the remains of Air Force Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers of Hopewell, Virginia.

But these days, there's often only one member of the news media present. Steve Ruark is a freelance photographer with the Associated Press. He has been to Dover for dignified transfers more than ninety times.

Over 200 bodies may have been misidentified or misplaced at Arlington National Cemetery, the Army said on Thursday. Arlington National Cemetery's superintendent and deputy have been ousted following a newly released Pentagon report revealing misidentified graves and poor record keeping. 

President Obama has long held that Afghanistan is a key battleground in the War on Terror, and for that reason, has maintained a commitment to a mission that began back in October 2001. But the exact form of that mission is in flux.