As of November 9th, former CIA Director and general David Petraeus has stepped down from his position due to an extramarital affair. From an article found here on the Reuters website, the scandal is slowly unwinding with many questions being raised.
A simple summary of the current details of the affair can be found here at the CNN website. What we know simply stated is that David Petraeus had an extra marital affair with author Paula Broadwell, who also wrote a biography of Petraeus in her book "All In". The story was uncovered by CIA agents when they were tipped off about harassing emails sent by Broadwell to Petraeus family friend Jill Kelley. Although Petraeus has done nothing illegal, he has stepped down because he claims he is not fit to lead anymore.
One of the many questions being raised are why now, right when the election has happened and right after the Benghazi attack when this affair has been going on for quite some time? Is there some sort of cover up story happening in the white house that neither the president nor his general Petraeus wants leaked? Has important information been leaked from Petraeus to any outside persons? Or more importantly, does this story even matter as much as the media is trying to portray it to be?
Let me know what you think if this is serious or not, or was it the right decision to step down.
A simple summary of the current details of the affair can be found here at the CNN website. What we know simply stated is that David Petraeus had an extra marital affair with author Paula Broadwell, who also wrote a biography of Petraeus in her book "All In". The story was uncovered by CIA agents when they were tipped off about harassing emails sent by Broadwell to Petraeus family friend Jill Kelley. Although Petraeus has done nothing illegal, he has stepped down because he claims he is not fit to lead anymore.One of the many questions being raised are why now, right when the election has happened and right after the Benghazi attack when this affair has been going on for quite some time? Is there some sort of cover up story happening in the white house that neither the president nor his general Petraeus wants leaked? Has important information been leaked from Petraeus to any outside persons? Or more importantly, does this story even matter as much as the media is trying to portray it to be?
Let me know what you think if this is serious or not, or was it the right decision to step down.
11 comments:
I agree with Petraeus' decision to step down from his position as CIA director. Although nothing he did was technically against the law, his extramarital affair displayed dishonesty and disregard for the secrecy and discretion that his job requires. Bill Clinton certainly set the standard for public officials who cheated on their wives. Although Clinton had an incredible presidency from a political standpoint, the circumstances of his personal life make it difficult to truly respect him. The personal lives of politicians and federal officials may not be directly related to their occupation but they do shed light on the character of the men that lead our country.
I think it’s important to reiterate what David has said: that Petraeus hasn’t technically broken the law, and to realize that people have the capability of making the distinction between their private and professional lives. While it may have been irresponsible to entertain an extramarital affair while in office, it’s even more irresponsible to take his own affair out of proportion, using it as a means to render himself “incapable” of performing the duties so needed by him. Garrett is entirely right when he says that Petraeus' private affairs should not have an overbearing impact on his ability to act as CIA director. Indeed, this affair sheds a negative light on Petraeus as a person, but what about as a leader? In my opinion, his decision to step down is equally inexcusable. While he may have lost faith in his personal loyalty, Petraeus is disregarding those in the CIA who have faith in him to lead. There are foreign and domestic matters that concern both him and our country that are bigger than himself, which fall under his duties. It is interesting, however, that his resignation was so prompt. Perhaps there’s more to this issue, something in addition to his affair that may have encouraged his announcement.
There are a few conspiracy theories that I have heard regarding the issue about how Petraeus is stepping down conveniently after the election but before the Benghazi hearings. In my opinion, these are a little bit outlandish. These conspiracy theories say more about the commentator/media than the administration--I think that it's implausible that the benefits of the conspiracy would outweigh the risks of being found out. Would hearing about this earlier really have affected any votes? Is his stepping down really making him less likely to testify? I would argue no to both.
I agree with David in that Petraeus may not be the best man for the job of CIA director. However, with so many things in our country changing given the election in addition to the security threats outside of our borders, I don't think that now is the time for Petraeus to step down. While his affair may say something about his character, I don't believe that Petraeus's private affairs should have as large of an impact on his ability to act as CIA director as the media might have us believe.
While I don't condone Petraeus' affair, I honestly don't believe it should have been the subject of national (and likely international) controversy. The discovery of his affair should have had huge repercussions for his personal life. However, it should not have had an impact upon his professional duty.
That said, unlike Keaton, I don't think that Petraeus' decision to step down is "inexcusable." In a perfect world, the discovery of Petraeus' affair would have not impacted his ability to act as CIA director and would have never reached the media as anything more than a minor side note. However, with the attention that Petraeus' affair has received and the social guidelines regarding controversy, Petraeus' ability to fulfill his job requirements would likely have become nearly impossible following the affair. His peers would have treated him differently at the cost of professionalism. Additionally, he would be continuously subject to media attention that would only hamper his position as the leader of an intelligence organization.
While I find that Petraeus' resignation was extremely unfortunately, I feel that it was necessary given the circumstances of our society. Ideally, his affair would not have such a major impact upon his profession.
I suppose I'll start with what pretty much everyone else has stated--the affair was a bad thing for Petraeus to do. That's clearly a given.
However, that being said, I feel the need to agree with Andrew when he says that his affair does not directly impact his ability to act as CIA director. Personal and professional lives should not interact (at least in the case of a job as serious as CIA director). If he's qualified to be the CIA director, he's most likely competent enough to separate his multiple lives.
Granted, Petraeus' resignation was reasonable since Petraeus most likely didn't want to be exposed to further public attention that his job might cause. It was probably just easier for him to resign.
As for all the talk of Petraeus possibly letting some information slip, it was just an affair. However bad that may be, it has little to do with exposing secret information and any of those sorts of allegations are just hype. He let something slip, but it sure wasn't top-secret information.
I'm not sure that this even deserves nearly the amount of media attention that it is getting. Private and professional lives, especially with jobs vital to national security, can and should be separate. I do not know how Petraeus was regarded from a professional perspective, but I think if he was doing a good job, he should not have stepped down. That being said, I do not respect a cheater, and I definitely think what Petraeus did was wrong.
As everyone has stated, an affair should not necessarily interfere with one's job performance. However, when Petraeus was commander of forces in Afghanistan (when he had the affair), he was given top secret security clearance and an affair is a breach of his top secret status. Also, as CIA director, he should not have had anything on his record that could potentially harm him or the CIA. The whole situation is rather suspicious. Those who join the CIA are subject to rigorous background checks meant to find things such as affairs and whatever else may endanger the CIA or the agent's status. It is strange that Petraeus' affair was not caught earlier. Maybe the consequences of his affair and resignation won't be serious, but it is still unclear if there were some ulterior or motives in play that could make this a larger scandal than it already is.
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