Kelley Beaucar Vlahos

The fall of Petraeus

The general and CIA director was idolised by Americans. His national army of fans feel horribly betrayed.

In the middle of a breaking news story, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell sounded like she was about to cry. Something had happened to the CIA director David Petraeus — but what? Andrea ticked off his accomplishments one by one, the phrase ‘personal tragedy’ echoing ominously over the airwaves.

For the love of Mike, was he in a coma? Dead? It took a few more painful moments of this boilerplate obituary and Mitchell’s palpable grief for it to sink in: ‘King David’ had done something bad — an extramarital affair! — for which he apparently took responsibility, and so he had immediately resigned his post.

Over the next days, the scandal spread. General John Allen was at it too, allegedly, sending ‘potentially inappropriate’ emails. Two women emerged from the flurry of news, the jezebels who’d led our brave generals astray: Petraeus’s biographer, Paula Broadwell, and a socialite from Tampa, Jill Kelley. David and Paula had had an affair, but then Paula had become jealous of Jill, who had been flirting with John… Suddenly the whole chain of command started to look like a bad soap opera.

It’s difficult to explain to a British reader how much America has worshipped Petraeus. After Friday’s news, the media was in mourning. Black clouds passed over the sun and the birds refused to sing. The sycophantic press rushed to remind us of his past glories, talking of the man’s incredible ‘popularity’ among the troops, his heroism, his intellectual vigour and genius. A parade of pundits referred to Petraeus’s resignation as ‘terribly sad,’ a ‘tragedy’, and I even heard a few blurt out ‘sacrifice’, as though he was climbing up onto the cross.

US senators were wandering around dazed and confused on Friday. Dianne Feinstein, acting like she had just discovered that her favourite teen dream idol was a crackhead, talked about the news as being a ‘lightning bolt’ to the system, and a ‘heartbreak’.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in