Enough With the Mad Men Mores: The Generals Are Not the Victims

[obamanut2012]

There they go again -- powerful men having illicit affairs while their apologists blame the women. Didn't we just vote to reject these Mad Men mores in last week's election? Apparently not everyone got the message.

These are the facts: Generals David Petraeus and John Allen exchanged torrents of emails with women not their wives. Petraeus had a relationship with his biographer and Allen exchanged voluminous emails with his female friend while both generals were supposed to be waging war and defending our country in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and around the world. The FBI, CIA, Pentagon, House and Senate are all looking into the chain of events to see whether and how national security was breached and military codes of conduct violated.

Both men will pay with their jobs. Both men will be cautionary tales. But what is the moral of their stories? That smart people do stupid things? Yes. That some secret keepers can't keep secrets? Yes. That the "e" in email stands for evidence? Yes. That there is no such thing as a private email on the "world wide web?" Yes. That human beings being human make lamentable mistakes? Yes. That the generals are victims of the women? Absolutely not.

Generals Allen and Petraeus are many things -- but victims they are not. There are victims here -- starting with the spouses and children and the children of the four consenting adults. There may be other victims as well -- such as service members and security personnel sacrificing their lives under the command of men who were not 100% focused on the task at hand. But the generals are not the victims and their enablers need to stop blaming the women.

Young folks call it "slut shaming" -- and Mother Jones reporter Kate Shappard has a pretty nasty compilation of the verbiage directed at Petraeus biographer Paula Broadwell: <snip>


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-pelosi/enough-with-the-mad-med-m_b_2122718.html

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A friend posted this on FB this morning. REALLY good article.

[Starry Messenger]

1. Same as it ever was.

Women, downfall of humanity since the dawn of history.

[obamanut2012]

4. Eve, Delilah, Salome...

[question everything]

2. Of course they are not the victims. But neither are the women

They deserve each other. And throw in also that shirtless FBI agent who, once removed from the investigation, ran to his congressman who later contacted Cantor.

[obamanut2012]

3. The article doesn't say they are

The victims are US citizens.

[Warren DeMontague]

10. As a US Citizen, I must say I don't feel particularly victimized by this sex act.

Honestly, If two consenting adults I don't know screw each other, or cheat on their spouses, that's a problem for them and their spouses and the others directly involved, but it really doesn't impact me one bit.

[obamanut2012]

11. I sure as hell feel victimized by the security breaches

And hypocrisy.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. The whole story drives me mad. The affairs aren't the issue.

Last edited Wed Nov 14, 2012, 08:02 PM - Edit history (1)

It's the secret-keepers keeping secrets -- that's the important part of the story, whether these high-ranking generals were exposing government secrets. The women are at issue only to the extent that they received classified information and may have divulged it to others.

Ugh.

[LadyHawkAZ]

8. +1

[Whisp]

12. Exactly.

There are more important things in this story than Petraeus' pickle inserting itself anywhere.

But the media and most everyone else is locked onto the sex part (which is so junior high stupid it hurts to read some of it) when there is a very serious part that hasn't got much air time questioning. Broadwell said, during a speech she did in Denver, that the CIA was holding Libyans prisoners (which they are NOT supposed to do, Obama changed that) and that may have been the trigger to the Consulate attack.

where is the media on this? Where, they are out there sniffing crotches, the idiots.

[libodem]

6. Ever since Eve

We have been taking a beating for seduction. *Typical swear words*

[LeftyMom]

7. Well surely she trapped him, because he's such a spiritually fit man committed to strong marriages.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/hey-general-petraeus-hows_b_2122699.html

[DonCoquixote]

9. I agree!

Look let's be blunt. The privates do the dying, but most of the casualties are due to the generals. The idea that they can escape the consequences of losing TWO WARS, but get punished for SEX, is a crime in and of itself. Kill a few hundred muslims, no problem, pick a rich white mistress, you screw up.

I will be real blunt, as long as consenting adults are involved, I do not care what goes on in bedrooms.

Now, I do not xcuse the ladies involved either, especially as they seemed to throw around titles like they were fashion statements. And anyone stupid enough to email things about a CIA member is stupid.

However, the generals are the ones who should know better. There is a line in the internationale that says "we will shoot the generals on our own side." Not saying we should shoot John, but he should know that in the rules of the game, he would be the one losing his head.