CIA Director General David Petraeus, a four-star general who previously commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan, was forced to resign this past week, citing an extramarital affair. The affair, with his biographer Paula Broadwell, came to light after an FBI investigation was launched concerning Broadwell sending harassing emails to another woman close to Petraeus from his email account.
Covering sex scandals in Washington could now be a job in itself, and seeing the downfall of one of the most influential military minds in modern history by these unfortunate circumstances is disconcerting. The publicization of marital transgressions that are better kept private tend to bring out our collective schadenfreude towards authority figures, but no such wave entered our discourse due to the respect this man commands. Nonetheless, it seems bizarre that public knowledge concerning his professional career and the national security matters it influenced garnered lesser criticism.
Government officials have asserted that Petraeus’s resignation is due solely to his extramarital affair, but the timing of his departure from the CIA calls for skepticism. Given that he was scheduled to speak as a witness concerning the Benghazi attack just days after he stepped down, Petraeus’s timely withdrawal could just as well be politically motivated.
The affair may have been the catalyst that finally ended his career. Prior to the recent scandal, Petraeus had a history of implementing controversial military tactics. For instance, the Iraqi forces training program he implemented is uniformly recognized as a failure even by the government. The ineffectiveness of U.S. troop surges and the uproar concerning human rights violationsin Afghanistan happened under Petraeus’s watch, as did the recent embassy attack in Libya that had a larger CIA role than previously thought.
The CIA, though, is placed on a pedestal, so these issues are typically swept under the rug. This leads to an immoral, but not illegal, act that ultimately forced his hand to resign.
Despite these failures, little has tarnished Petraeus’s public image before the extramarital affair and ensuing breach of classified information was revealed. While the affair represents the dictionary definition of irresponsible, it follows a long line of questionable actions during such an illustrious career.
A version of this article appeared in the Monday, Nov. 12 print edition. Email the WSN Editorial Board at [email protected].
