The Petraeus scandal is not really about sex

Michael Hastings,  the journalist who exposed Stanley McCrystal in a Rolling Stone article, has written the definitive piece on Petraeus, revealing him for the murderous jerk he is.  I would hardly be surprised if Obama had been wanting to get rid of him but had to wait until after he was re-elected to force his resignation. The timing would indicate as much.

But Petraeus’ crash is more significant than the latest nonsense sex scandal. As President Obama says, our decade of war is coming to an end. The reputations of the men who were intimately involved in these years of foreign misadventure, where we tortured and supported torture, armed death squads, conducted nightly assassinations, killed innocents, and enabled corruption on an unbelievable scale, lie in tatters. McChrystal, Caldwell, and now Petraeus — the era of the celebrity general is over. Everyone is paying for their sins. (And before we should shed too many tears for the plight of King David and his men, remember, they’ll be taken care of with speaking fees and corporate board memberships, rewarded as instant millionaires by the same defense establishment they served so well.)

More: From The Progressive. And this is from Ray McGovern, a former insider. Damning.

Furthermore: Thomas E. Ricks' condemnation in The Atlantic Magazine, of the generals who screwed up the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and never had to pay the price.

We are going to see a big shakeup in the military, and it's more than high time.

And not to be overlooked:

Michael Moore ‏@MMFlint

From The Onion: "Nation Horrified To Learn About War In Afghanistan While Reading Up On Petraeus Sex Scandal" http://mmflint.me/X5npl0

 

 

 

Comments

[Brandon]

"Stormin'" Norman Schwarzkopf was one of the first celebrity generals. He was on CNN all the time.

Are you back in Hilo?

[Tabor]

Certainly an eye-opener for me. Good research.

[naomi]

And then there are the survivors of all this murderous posturing by the military. Please visit my blog with one-minute Vimeo by remarkable local group we support, Returning Veterans Project. Every state needs to have something similar.

[Hattie]

Will do. It will be a nice break from the "patriotic" broadcasting on NPR.
But it is also clear that Obama could never have won re-election without the backing of many among that portion of the public that loves the military.

[barbara]

Glad to read this slant on the situation -- makes sense to me -- barbara

[Brandon]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/lupica-petraeus-resignation-loss-country-article-1.1200347

[musings]

I still can hardly believe how stupid he was to get involved in all this.

[Henry Hank Chapin]

One of my gripes about the military, especially the brass, is that they take a pledge to serve and obey their president. Civilian control of the military is a basic American tenet. But, instead, they are deeply subservive, almost 100% Republican, and appear to detest President Obama. They come off as deeply unpatriotic to me. That's why I count firing General McChrystal as one of Obama's achievements. Of course, someone like me would be considered un-American.

[Hattie]

Hank: Yes. And we are old enough to remember that arrogant jerk, MacArthur, who wanted to invade China and how the military types reacted when Truman fired him. Like, how dare he???

[Brandon]

An interesting article:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/07/the-widening-gap-between-military-and-society/306158/