I’m not sure what to make of the Yon embed cancellation business. There has been lots of politically driven speculation in Internet forums about Government ‘cover ups’ and ‘liberal conspiracies.’
There has also been a lot of talk about MoD 'bureaucrats', ‘pen pushers’ etc. It may be true that most people at the 'Ministry of Defeat' are civilian ‘bean counters’, but I think the MoD ‘Media Ops’ people responsible for A-stan are from the military: officers from the Regular Army and PR specialists from the Territorial Army based at PJHQ Northwood. AFAIK any decision to cancel Yon’s embed would have been taken by a military officer in the field or at PJHQ.
PR specialist Major Paul Smyth of the MoD making a news report:
Yon was originally well regarded by the Army hierarchy, but it is rumoured that he has fallen out of favour with some people. He has claimed that the West is “losing” in A-stan when as far as the Army is concerned we are “making progress.”