On Nov. 9, BBC reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had made the absolutely shocking discovery that then-Director of the Central Intelligence Agency David Petraeus did in fact possess a penis.
Petraeus had used said male member on his biographer, Paula Broadwell, for about a year before ending their affair. When Jill Kelley, a socialite fond of throwing parties for the military started getting threatening emails from Broadwell, she called a friend in the FBI.
Broadwell might have thought Kelley knew of the affair or wanted to jump the general’s bones, her intentions remain unclear. What are clear are intimate discussions between Broadwell and Petraeus.
Shouldn’t have used AOL, you crazy kids. The FBI sent this info up the chain and Petraeus offered his resignation to President Barack Obama to preempt the scandal.
As the details slowly started to trickle in and the media collectively orgasmed over such a naughty piece of news, I kept shaking my head.
It should be remembered that Petraeus was the general behind the surge in Iraq that stabilized the country. Say what you will about the invasion of Iraq, Petraeus’ strategy stopped the country from falling into absolute pandemonium.
For the record I thought the initial invasion of Iraq was a horrible idea, although I was 13 at the time, so, I lacked the credentials to dissuade President Bush from ordering the invasion.
Iraq is still very violent but at least it isn’t experiencing full scale civil war and genocide, which seemed likely before the 2007 “surge” orchestrated by then-General Petraeus. In 2010, Petraeus was made direct commander of the international forces in Afghanistan and implemented a similar “surge” strategy there.
In 2011 he became Director of the CIA, which is responsible for intelligence outside of the United States. Basically, Petraeus was the American version of M from the James Bond film series. On top of his accomplishments in the field, he was a top student at West Point and has a Ph.D. in international relations from Princeton University.
Now he’s resigned over this crap.
First of all, this was a private affair that the FBI had no business poking around in. The wrong was with Broadwell threatening someone. This had nothing to do with Petraeus. The CIA might have been concerned that Petraeus could have been blackmailed at some point, but as far as the Obama administration can tell, the affair did not cause any security breaches.
Yes he is married and it was immoral to have an affair, I understand, but is this reason enough to boot an extremely qualified man from his job? Former President John F. Kennedy had sex with Marilyn Monroe, but he was still a good president. Arnold Schwarzenegger impregnated his maid, but he was still a good governor. Former President Bill Clinton received oral sex and lied about it, yet he didn’t have to quit, so don’t give me that “he should set an example” baloney.
This isn’t the 1950s, people’s private affairs shouldn’t be put on display like this. He made a mistake, but an even bigger mistake was feeding the press this story and forcing him to retire. This is another example of backwards priorities from the government and the public.
