Take a deep breath, folks.
It looks like General David Petraeus may have been a good thing after all; it was just near impossible to see it through the Bush/Cheney bullshit.
I can't flesh it out more for you just yet, but it looks like that election in 2006 when the Democrats were put in the majority and gained oversight really did change everything (at least the most important things).
(It gets better ..)