Writing for Rolling Stone, Michael Hastings says that the Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers to “manipulate visiting senators into providing more funding for the war.” The senators knew that they were going to be spun, says Hastings, but the question is to what degree this was appropriate or legal. This group was under the command of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell in Afghanistan; when soldiers spoke out against the order, they were ignored. Hastings explains that at the very least, this was “a misue of vital resources designed to combat the enemy; it cost American taxpayers roughly $6 million to deploy Holmes and his team in Afghanistan for a year.”