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Read Josh Haven's thoughts from a right-leaning perspective:
Last Friday, CIA director David Petraeus, ex-General, ex-commander of American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, resigned his post as the country's chief spy, citing an extra-marital affair.
Why Is This A Big Deal?
Details are trickling out to the press in a continual stream. Here's what we know so far: the keeper of our collective intelligence was engaged in a secret affair with a woman, Paula Broadwell, who had been his biographer. This is bad; CIA directors can't let people get dirt on them, and should be careful not impress lovers with state secrets. Petraeus says the affair began after he resigned his position in the military, and ended several months ago. But this now appears to be a lie, as people point out Miss Broadwell appears to have been in possession of classified information while Petraeus was still in uniform, and as recently as the day after the Benghazi attack on this past September 11th.
And There's The Problem
Did the affair distract Petraeus from doing his job during the murderous, ill-handled attack? On September 12th, Petraeus seemed to think that a Mohammed-mocking video was to blame for the attack; this notion has since been proven incorrect. Did Petraeus not know because he was off canoodling? Did men die because of poor intelligence and poor intelligence management? Did Petraeus in fact know right away the cause of the attack? Was he pressured to back up the President's version of events, i.e., blame the video, i.e., lie, because someone knew about the affair and threatened to out him?
Oh, He'll Testify, All Right
All of this will presumably asked and explained in Congress's Benghazi investigation. But now Petraeus seems to be saying he will not testify, having resigned. But let me assure you: Petraeus will definitely testify. Maybe his testimony will be delivered under subpoena, but testify he most assuredly will. I should mention, as Armistice and Veterans Days have just passed, that Petraeus was a great general -- perhaps more responsible than any man else for the victory in Iraq, through his implementation of the troop surge. But that doesn't excuse his behavior since. Maybe he did nothing wrong, aside from betraying his wife. That is to say, let's not jump to conclusions: he may not have betrayed the rest of us. We will see.
