Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Petraeus’s Bathsheba Syndrome - Why did a man we so respected succumb to temptation?
National Review Online ^ | November 13, 2012 | Mackubin Thomas Owens

Posted on 11/14/2012 1:49:25 PM PST by neverdem

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-98 next last
To: Buckeye McFrog

Well put ‘Frog. Yep, sold to us as so smart, the ‘Top Spook’ if you will, but to damn stupid to be able to figure out how to bang a chippie broad or two on the sly without getting caught. This very well could be a classic Honey Pot. I read a story earlier today that really layed out some interesting things about those 2 sisters and their connections to the middle east.


21 posted on 11/14/2012 2:17:00 PM PST by bobby.223 (Retired high up in the mountains of the American Redoubt and it's a GREAT life!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
Petraeus’s Bathsheba Syndrome - Why did a man we so respected succumb to temptation?

Oh he'll bounce right back!

Hell; even Slick Willy got re-elected!

22 posted on 11/14/2012 2:28:09 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

I’m sure the fact that his wife is a leftist harridan had nothing to do with it. Talk about just giving up and letting yourself go. That doesn’t excuse his behavior, but it does make it more likely to happen in the first place.


23 posted on 11/14/2012 2:35:55 PM PST by cdcdawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sherman Logan

Is the Old Testament the same in every version?


24 posted on 11/14/2012 2:39:16 PM PST by neverdem ( Xin loi min oi)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

The author is too cerebral in his analysis. Sexual attraction is designed to overpower the rational mind, and it is exceedingly difficult to maintain moral purity. That’s why there are many moral strictures to act as a bulwark against that kind of temptation. This is especially true if you’re a man in the presence of an attractive, smart, and aggressive woman who is obviously willing to become physically intimate. Yes, many man do pass by the temptation, but I’m willing to be that those who do reject it spend much of their lives imagining what might have been. The rest succumb to temptation.

That’s not where my mind went with this. The first thing I thought about were the sheer volumes of Democrat horndogs who have mounted everything this side of a knot in a tree and been richly appreciated by their party and the media. The double standard floors me. Second, I was thinking about Alinsky’s rule about punishing your enemy with their own rules. Petraeus was talked about as a Republican presidential candidate; now this. Third, I know Obama has a long history of destroying opponents with revelations about private sex lives. This fits the pattern.

God help us.


25 posted on 11/14/2012 2:39:45 PM PST by redpoll
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: redpoll

“...willing to BET....”
Need a better editor (in my brain).


26 posted on 11/14/2012 2:41:52 PM PST by redpoll
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

The candy in checkout lanes is for men. We’re impulse buyers. The bigger question is, “Why risk your family and career?” Why bring her back for more?


27 posted on 11/14/2012 2:42:40 PM PST by steve8714 (Obama's evil shown actual size.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: knarf

Sure, but was it “All In”? ;)


28 posted on 11/14/2012 2:46:05 PM PST by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: AppyPappy

I hope her husband kicks her dirty whoring *ss to the curb, takes her children, and her book royalties, too! Then you’ll see how much that “rack” will get her.


29 posted on 11/14/2012 2:47:01 PM PST by Mamzelle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Eva

Well, he’s also had prostate cancer and probably has hugh problems with his sexual performance. Takes a strong women to help him with his penis pump.


30 posted on 11/14/2012 2:51:37 PM PST by Mamzelle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: cdcdawg
Take that wrinkly old pencil -necked dork out of his uniform with all that bling on it (I'm suspecting someone with so little honor, that bling might be fake), put him in a short-sleeved white shirt and a pocket protector, and he'd look right at home next to the wife you hold in such contempt.

Tomorrow he could surprise me, but I'm thinking he'll just lie his pathetic old rear end off to save Obama.

31 posted on 11/14/2012 2:54:45 PM PST by Mamzelle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Nip

Excellent overview.


32 posted on 11/14/2012 2:55:56 PM PST by Psalm 144 (Voodoo Republicans. Don't read their lips. Watch their hands.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: cdcdawg
"...the fact that his wife is a leftist harridan..."

This is not as widely known as it should be.

33 posted on 11/14/2012 2:57:35 PM PST by Paladin2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Eva; All
I want to add a slightly different psychological take on what might have caused the attraction, and led to the affair...the fact that they are both dedicated long time runners.

I've been running for over 40 years, and Petraeus by all accounts was near fanatical in his obsession with running..far more than I. Over the age of 40, and especially over 50, the physical distinctions and capabilities between those who are fit, and those who aren't, are far more apparent. People who don't run, do NOT understand how important it is to those who do. That's why we run in the rain, in the snow, why we get up at the crack of dawn, even after having gotten home at 2am that same night. Why when we're away on a business trip, we take out running gear.

Holly Petraeus is a lovely lady who does wonderful work with the troops, and has been the perfect military spouse as Petraeus climbed the ranks. However, it's obvious from pictures that she probably couldn't walk a 5k. They couldn't share his greatest passion.And she wasn't always like that, their wedding pics show a slender woman; indeed, their daughter's wedding's pics, from last year, mirror the mom's..a slender, trim, attractive woman.

The wife, for whatever reasons, let herself go over the years..failed to take care of herself...and that can, and has, killed many a marriage, when one spouse falls badly out of shape. Some may call that sexist, to me, it's just reality.

The fact that Broadwell could run, and even keep up with him, was, IMHO, the ultimate contributing factor..she could share, participate in, something that is very important to him.

34 posted on 11/14/2012 3:01:00 PM PST by ken5050 ("One useless man is a shame, two are a law firm, three or more are a Congress".. John Adams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Sherman Logan
Right. Solomon was probably a young child at the time of Absalom's rebellion.

Ahitophel, who sides with Absalom (he is the one who suggests that Absalom sleep with David's concubines) but later commits suicide when his advice is rejected, was the grandfather of Bathsheba...so the great-grandfather of Solomon, who would never have reached the throne if Absalom had succeeded David.

35 posted on 11/14/2012 3:03:23 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Eva

You make sense.


36 posted on 11/14/2012 3:08:46 PM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: ken5050

RE: #34, that makes as much sense as anything I’ve read about this affair.


37 posted on 11/14/2012 3:15:53 PM PST by Marathoner (Benghazi = Watergate on steroids)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: knarf
He was set up.

Broadwell is a woman with a husband and two kids. If it were a honey pot, a more logical and so more likely seductress would have been an attractive single woman.

Furthermore she allegedly still had papers on her when the affair became public. That is not the hallmark of a pro operation.

38 posted on 11/14/2012 3:25:01 PM PST by SteveH (First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: ken5050
A man and woman working out together can get pretty sexy pretty quick.

Please don't ask me how I know.

39 posted on 11/14/2012 3:26:52 PM PST by AAABEST (Et lux in tenebris lucet: et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Who ever respected BetrayUs?


40 posted on 11/14/2012 3:36:37 PM PST by CodeToad (Padme: "So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-98 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson