Speaking of Stuxnet . . .

Last week The Washington Post and NBC News reported that retired Marine General James Cartwright, the former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is a target of a Justice Department probe for allegedly leaking classified information about the Stuxnet attack on Iran's nuclear facilities to The New York Times in 2012.

I have never been a fan of Cartwright's* (i.e. he opposed the Afghan Surge in 2009, favored a drone strike rather than a JSOC-led raid against Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound in 2011, and since retiring has become a critic of drone strikes), but holy @#$#!!!

It may be true that Cartwright is "one of the most politically contentious military officers in Washington," and that "the foreign-plicy implications of identifying the Stuxnet virus as the handiwork of U.S. spies were enormous," but the possibile indictment of the former number two officer in the U.S. military is what Vice President Biden would call a "BFD."

Note: To be clear, these are policy disagreements. My Marine friends swear by Cartwright's integrirty, and the 2009 accusation that he had an improper relationship with a subordinate was clearly a B.S. smear job.

Retired General James "Hoss" Cartwright, former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.