Woman No. 1’s gush book was remarkable for its access
to the CIA director, says her writing partner, a Washington Post editor who had
no idea of how far it went.
“I always wondered,” he now writes, “how Petraeus
justified his relationship with her to his command staff in Afghanistan.
Surely, eyebrows were raised...Female colleagues of mine weren’t shy in
remarking about Broadwell’s good looks and her affinity for flashy, cocktail
party attire even at staid national security conferences.”
Still, Vernon Loeb insists he was clueless about you-know-what.
Even more intriguing is news about Woman No. 2’s
growing dossier as a military groupie, which now includes thousands of pages of
“inappropriate communication” with Gen. John Allen, US commanding general in
Afghanistan.
As the story of Jill Kelley unwinds, the volunteer
social planner for troops seems to have been giving more than party advice in
Florida. The New York Times discloses she set off Petraeus' downfall by
complaining about Broadwell’s e-mails to a local FBI agent “who had previously
pursued a friendship with Ms. Kelley and had earlier sent her shirtless
photographs of himself.”
That all this salacious stuff has a serious theme is
underscored by news that the Armed Forces are training future generals and admirals with such literature as “The Bathsheba Syndrome: The Ethical Failure
of Successful Leaders,” recounting the moral lapse of the Old Testament’s King
David, who ordered a soldier on a mission of certain death in order to take his
wife, Bathsheba.
The FBI may want to consider the same kind of training
for horny agents who can set off the downfall of an important American leader
in order to make time with one of the local Bathshebas.
Petraeus was certainly guilty of what he calls “extremely
bad judgment,” but he was far from alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment