Petraeus Fiasco

This shit is stupid… unless it keeps getting bigger.

guy maybe had an affair with some chick and he has to resign over it?

then this Allen guy is getting wrung through the coals for ‘flirtatious emails’…SRSLY!!!

this is complete bullshit that this even matters. they guys are paid to be effective leaders not great husbands and for using perfect e-mail etiquette.

Reuters Article

Jill Kelley, has emerged as a central figure in the scandal that has brought down one of the most admired military leaders in the United States and threatens to derail the career of another.

Defense officials and people close to Petraeus say neither he nor Allen had a romantic relationship with Kelley, a 37-year-old wife and mother

Allen and Kelley communicated … over the past two years …

A senior defense official told Reuters the messages were seen as inappropriate because they were “flirtatious” in nature, not because they dealt with sensitive information.

Yaaaaaawwwnnn

Yeah it’s pretty ridiculous how big of a deal these things are made out to be. It seems like we get at least one of them a year, last year we had Anthony Weiner sending girls pictures of his…well…you know where I’m going with this.

that was a bit different. a politician in his position is not nearly as important as Petraeus’ role.

anyways, this article sums up my opinion better than i could state it myself: LINK

best line:

We have asked much of him, sending him on three tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Yet when the time came for us to be generous in return, we were not.

Definitely, I’m not saying the two people are equivalent, just musing on how big of a deal we make sex scandals out to be in the U.S. Sometimes I feel like we have the collective social maturity of a bunch of middle schoolers who giggle every time the health teacher says penis. But that’s why I drew the comparison to Anthony Weiner, he was one of few Democrats who was known for not being a bull-shitter and going toe to toe with pundits and not backing down. He was the kind of politician I think we needed plenty more of, and he had his career cut short by a scandal.

Side note: why is political discussion a completely separate forum with next to no visibility on the main NYSpeed forums? This post could actually be an interesting discussion I’d like to see some other opinions on, but this section of the forum is a bit of a ghost town.

We tried that. It was a disaster. Think of this as the adults table vs. kids table. “Interesting discussion” certainly wasn’t the result, lol. There is a blurb at the top of the ‘forums’ page that kinda explains this.

Back on topic though, the only part about this story that is interesting (and relevant IMO) is the relationship between this and the attack in Libya / national security risk… if any exists at all. And we’ll find out soon enough.

The point was made that if the director of the CIA can’t keep his personal life secret, how well can he keep our nations secrets secret, lol.

Just further proof of the age old addage: don’t stick your dick in crazy.

see this is what i have a problem with.

there is no correlation between national secrets and marital fidelity.

it may be a weak point but sexual promiscuity on behalf of men of authority is an institution the world over. no man is immune to it over time. moreover, in this case, for something like this to get this far without someone advising against it is a break down of the whole system, not of one man.

and beyond that, again, he is not required to be a good husband to be a good general. for example, if we’re going to place lesser individuals in roles like his because the lesser general is a better husband then the whole western world is done a disservice. marital status based affirmative action?