I have never been a critic of David Petraeus. I opposed the war in Iraq but I was pleased that we had at least one general who seemed to know what he was doing. About the only thing George W. Bush ever did right was recognize that Petraeus was his best general and to give him more and more responsibility. He didn’t perform any miracles training the Iraqi Army or fixing the mess in Afghanistan, but he distinguished himself as a competent leader who never made things worse.
I thought that Obama made him the Director of Central Intelligence to keep him on the inside rather than on the outside as a potential critic or even presidential opponent. It’s strange that his career ended the second he stopped being useful in that regard. I’m sure the conspiracies will be flowing for a long time. Could Obama really be that ruthless?
According to the New York Times, the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was only informed about Petraeus’s affair at 5pm on election day, and Obama didn’t learn of it until Wednesday evening. The timing is just amazing. I am not sure quite what to think.
The basic story line is pretty mundane. The FBI was notified that Petraeus’s lover was sending harassing emails to some women and began an investigation which revealed the affair. Then they decided to check into whether Petraeus’s email had been compromised and determined that it was not. But things are pretty murky after that. How did this information travel up the chain of command? Who made the decision to confront Petraeus with the information?
I love a good spy story. But I doubt we’ll ever know what really happened.
