Benghazi Index
Posted on 11/14/2012 1:49:25 PM PST by neverdem
General David Petraeus is arguably the most consequential and renowned American military leader since World War II. His resignation because of an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, has shocked Americans. L’affaire Petraeus has two parts that must be separated: his sexual relationship with Broadwell itself, and the link between the timing of the announcement of his resignation and the Benghazi attacks on September 11.
Here I will focus on the former. What led a successful general at the height of his power and influence to have an affair that undid all he had accomplished?
In 1993, Dean Ludwig and Clinton Longnecker co-authored an article for The Journal of Business Ethics titled “The Bathsheba Syndrome: The Ethical Failure of Successful Leaders.”(PDF) The name of their piece comes, of course, from the biblical story of King David and Bathsheba, recounted in the Second Book of Samuel. David seduces Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and impregnates her. He later orders that Uriah be placed in the front ranks of the fighting, where Uriah is killed. Upon word of his death, David marries Bathsheba. God is displeased and sends the prophet Nathan to rebuke the king, who repents but is nonetheless punished by the death of his and Bathsheba’s child, and by the later civil war arising from the insurrection Absalom (David’s beloved third son) leads against Solomon (the second son of David and Bathsheba).
Ludwig and Longnecker, as well as others writing subsequently, have argued that the psychological impact of gaining power, despite many positive effects, also may unleash a dark side: the belief that one is too big to fail, that the normal rules do not apply. Thus even a leader of high moral character may succumb to the temptations that accompany the acquisition of power. The findings of Ludwig and Longnecker regarding the moral corruption of the powerful go a long way toward explaining Petraeus’s behavior.
For one, they argue that moral principles are more often abandoned in the wake of success than as a result of competitive pressure. Success tends to inflate a leader’s belief that he has a special personal ability to manipulate or control outcomes, an issue that particularly seems to have applied to Petraeus.
The general clearly seemed to believe that he could control the consequences of his sexual liaison with Broadwell, his biographer. I reviewed her book All In: The Education of General David Petraeus for Foreign Affairs, and wrote that the book portrayed Petraeus as the modern exemplar of the soldier-scholar-statesman. “The Petraeus that emerges from Broadwell’s book,” I wrote, “is educated, committed, competitive, driven, and inspiring.” I noted Broadwell’s “extensive access to the general and his subordinates over a prolonged period” but concluded that All In had avoided the “pitfall of hagiography.” In retrospect, I was wrong.
Not all Davids who fall prey to the Bathsheba syndrome have an actual Bathsheba, but Petraeus did. Although I absolved her of hagiography, it seemed clear that Broadwell, a West Point graduate and Army reserve officer with an M.A. from the University of Denver and an M.P.A. from Harvard, was in awe of Petraeus. Twenty years younger than the general, Broadwell is a very attractive married mother of two young children, but her appeal to Petraeus no doubt went beyond mere sex.
As we are now discovering, many of Petraeus’s closest advisers were very concerned about the “extensive access” that Broadwell had to the general. Many of those individuals may well bear some of the responsibility for the situation that has ensued. The Bathsheba syndrome is usually enabled by a phalanx of loyalists and operatives willing to defend the leader at any cost. The leader thus may come to believe that he is somehow invulnerable, allowing his passions and sensual desires to tyrannize over his reason and good judgment.
This was certainly the case with, say, Bill Clinton. Although General Petraeus has always seemed to possess a moral fiber absent in the case of the former president, he too may have felt that he would be protected by his loyal subordinates. That is the fate of a man who succumbs to the Bathsheba syndrome.
— Mackubin Thomas Owens is a professor of national-security affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and the editor of Orbis. He is a Marine infantry veteran of Vietnam.
Petraeus is a long distance runner. Long distance running can be very beneficial. It reduces stress and usually improves overall health. Long distance running to prove your superiority over your subordinates creates an unhealthy command climate. Some people become addicted to running. There is “The Runner’s High” that some people have. It can become addicting. Like any other addiction, it can be very detrimental. The need to run means that there is less time for other activities including business activities. There are studies that claim that years of long distance running, coupled with a low body fat percentage, robs the brain of necessary materials. I would assume that Petraeus has a low body fat. If you run to prove your superiority over your subordinates, then I think you have an inferiority complex. Petraeus was pushing 60 years of age. A younger woman takes an interest in him. He can show that age isn’t affecting him and he’s not inferior. That’s my take.
little head vs. big head
That bling is about as earned as the participation awards hat are handed out to our school children.
During the years of close contact, Petraeus had ample opportunity to “draw the line” for Broadwell; however, he apparently did not, presuming she did not physically jump him by surprise after he did draw the line (an unlikely scenario IMHO). I think a plausible explanation is that Broadwell set her sights on Petraeus early. By not drawing the line, Petraeus marked himself in her estimation as either weak-willed, or a serial philanderer waiting for the next score to come around. Certainly with a wife like he had, Petraeus may have finally succumbed to marital battle fatigue when Broadwell came along to push him over the edge. However, it may alternatively be the case that the guy was accustomed to “playing the field” while away from home. Playing the field does not seem that uncommon in the military (so I have occasionally heard). If Petraeus was playing the field already by the time Broadwell came along, it would be a relatively minor step for him to convince himself that Broadwell would be like all the others before her, that is, a practice that might at most receive a wink and a verbal reprimand in more mundane circumstances. However he would have been by then more than halfway down the slippery slope, and neglected to realize that the biographer relationship would be public and the materials he shared with her potentially suspected to be classified, in which case any liaison would be very difficult for others to ignore once brought to their attention.
I think I get it. I'm like that with prayer.
But then...
This entire matter can't be this simple can it? Please tell me that Petraeus and others realize that our country is being stolen from under our eyes and are moving cleverly to attempt to recover it.;-)
Broadwell is young enough to be his daughter. His wife, Holly, is about 20 yrs. older than her. It reaches a point where it’s not just a matter of “letting yourself go”; she was a pretty slender blonde girl with long hair when they married. Things change. I cannot feel good about this just because she is a lib. You put your life’s blood into a marriage nearly 40 yrs., and it does take a toll.
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LOL.
Petraus had a hard and fast rule while in Iraq, according to his XO, that he never did interviews or considered biographies/memoirs while actively working, and that he was never alone with anyone, particularly the opposite sex to ensure there could be no possible inferences.
When he got to the CIA, he immediately broke both of those long standing rules with this woman to do his biography.
I saw an interview with the XO from Iraq yestrerday who had called Petraeus the day before and asked him why on earth he would do that. He indicated that the General did not have a good answer other than that he had “screwed up real bad,” and that he “thought” the book was going to be about Iraq in general and by the time he found out it was actually a bio on him, it was too late.
That sounds like hogwash too me. Perhaps he was too far into something else at that point...but it is completely out of character for this man.
I think there is more to it than we are hearing for sure.
When you consider that the leading General in charge of all of Africa, and the Admiral in charge of the CSG operating in the Med were stood down/relieved in conjunction with, or soon after Benghazi, and now this occurs to Petraeus just before he is scheduled to testify before congress on Benghazi and the US General in charge of all NATO forces in Afghanistan is now being dragged into the scandal...it’s just too many very top people going down all at once for it to be coincidence to me.
Almost like a silent purge going on.
Fight On! Never Falter, Never Waver
http://www.jeffhead.com/fighton.htm
you sir are a maroon, running around like some crazed lunatic in the ice storm.
I stay skinny by not eating. It’s called fasting and praying every Wednesday and Friday.
I know those people that have to run care about it more than their families. It’s kookoo
Had to give you an LOL for that one...
Was that Nagl? I forget his first name.
So you think it's HER fault, do you cdcdawg? How dare a late middle-aged woman LOOK like a late middle-aged woman.
I'm sure that if she'd had a tummy tuck, a butt lift, breast implants, a facelift, had her thighs lipo-ed, dyed her hair, had her teeth capped and gotten contact lens, her husband wouldn't have succumbed to a beautiful woman 20 years younger who made it clear she was available.
Her having his children, moving 23 times in 36 years to advance his career, nursing him through getting shot, breaking his pelvis and cancer treatment during their 36 years of marriage didn't count for much, did it.
She'll probably forgive him because that's what committed spouses do. However, I just hope she realizes that it'll take at least 5 years before she'll go a day without thinking about it multiple times.
She looks like just about every other liberal woman we see. Her hair and sense of style lead me to the conclusion that she has let herself go, regardless of age. Maybe that looks normal to the crowd she runs with: a bunch of liberal feminist witches. Again, it doesn’t excuse his behavior, but it makes it all the more likely. Call me un-shocked.
Thanks for the ping!
Some people pray, fast and run...
Of course he’s going to lie to save Obama. To do otherwise would be to contradict his earlier statements. The only way he can be credible is to lie. Set up like a bowling pin.
I hold both of them in contempt; they’re both liberals in service to Obama, so we start with contempt. More for him, because he did cheat, and that’s wrong regardless of the level of temptation. He’s a powerful high achiever, who stayed in top physical shape. He’s married to somebody who doesn’t put any effort into her appearance at all. Easy pickins for a Paula Broadwell. I think we can be disappointed without being terribly shocked.
No, I do not think it is her fault. I’m glad it gave you the chance to vent, though. You obviously needed to. What part of “that doesn’t excuse his behavior” did you think left open the possibility that I actually did excuse his behavior, and placed the blame with her?
Now, be honest, if she looked like Ann Romney, you would have been more shocked. Of course it’s not at all a fair comparison, because the Romneys are both genetically gifted beyond us mortals. Still, if you would have been more surprised, then you really don’t disagree with me.
It’s not a matter of her competing with a much younger woman in the looks department. She can’t do that anymore than he (or I, for that matter) can physically compete with younger men. She looks like she doesn’t care. I know it’s the 21st century and feminism happened and all, but if a woman makes some basic effort to look good for her man, it goes a very long way. Not because she looks better than a potential rival, but because she make the effort for him. Same goes for guys who turn into fat slobs who neglect their wives. How many women married to a general a generation or two ago would step outside the house looking like she does? You’ve come a long way baby!
It might not have mattered. He might just be a cheater. Just to be on the safe side, if your significant other is physically fit, and cares about his/her appearance, you might want to do the same.
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