By January 1938, Adolf Hitler was planning to launch major
military campaigns to achieve German hegemony in Western Europe.
The Führer and other Nazi leaders, however, regarded War Minister,
Gen. Werner von Blomberg as too hesitant toward war preparations
and an impediment to extending Nazi control over the Wehrmacht.
Hitler didn’t yet feel powerful enough to take on Blomberg and the
traditional Prussian leadership, but fate turned the tables the
Führer’s way.
In early January, Blomberg married Erna Gruhn. Prior to the
marriage, Blomberg confided to Hitler that his fiancée had a shady
past due to economic desperation during the depression years of the
Weimar Republic. Hitler, assuring the general of National Socialist
understanding, not only approved the marriage, he attended the
ceremony where Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goring served as best man.
Within days the Gestapo fed incriminating information on Mrs.
Blomberg to the press. Blomberg resigned rather than accede to
Hitler’s demands that he annul the marriage. The Führer then moved
to place the Wehrmacht more firmly under his personal control.
The sad end of Gen. David Petraeus has a similar stench to it.
First, there is no regulation against Central Intelligence Agency
personnel having extra-marital affairs. If, however, those affairs
are with foreigners or involve exotic matters like kinky sex,
particularly with prostitutes, then those cases would be
problematic, particularly for top leadership. A straight affair,
with a U.S. national, married or not, would be a matter of poor
judgment on the part of a director, but not especially troubling.
If, however, as is reported, Director Petraeus pursued the woman in
question, Paula Broadwell, after she terminated the affair, this
could reveal an obsession that might betray a major character flaw
or some kind of libido connected instability. In any event, Mrs.
Broadwell, a graduate student at the John F. Kennedy School, West
Point graduate, and formerly an Army reservist, was not subject to
Petraeus’ chain of command either while he was a serving officer or
directing the CIA.
And please spare us the self-righteous breast beating about
adultery on the part of a serving Army officer being grounds for
disciplinary action. Technically, marital infidelity can provide
grounds for punishment, but it has rarely been used against
officers, particularly flag officers, especially in cases where
there is no involvement with the chain of command. While in recent
years using one’s rank to obtain sexual favors through harassment
has been more vigorously prosecuted, that was not the issue in this
instance.
Conduct unbecoming? Maybe, but again spare us the self-righteous
indignation. Just last June, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta
effusively praised the initial celebration of “Gay Pride Month.”
The Obama administration has hardly set the bar high when it comes
to sexual conduct.
How likely is it that the FBI suddenly discovered this affair
after last Tuesday’s election? Certainly an affair concerning the
director of the CIA would have been briefed to the attorney general
and then taken to the president, supposedly quicker than one can
say, “Attack
underway on a U.S. consulate in Libya.” It’s more likely that
this investigation was underway for quite some time and that David
Petraeus knew it. Again, scandal lurks outside a door marked, “What
did the President know, and when did he know it?”
More to the point, why is that within a week of the director’s
absolutely crucial testimony before a closed congressional session
looking into
the Benghazi affair, is David Petraeus gone and no longer
available for testimony? If President Obama really wants to get to
the essence of the truth as to what happened in Benghazi, why did
he not insist that Petraeus remain at his post until after his
testimony clears the air? Certainly the president and his advisors
understand that the Petraeus resignation at this critical time will
only fan the flames of speculation concerning a Benghazi
cover-up.
The Petraeus testimony is crucial to understanding what was
known about Benghazi and when it was known. Congress, which has
subpoenaed Mafia dons, Ku Klux Klan leaders, and yes, CIA officials
in the past, can also bring in a retired general and former CIA
director and put him under oath. To do anything less, is to sell
out a Republic that has already been sold short by too many in top
leadership positions.
The Petraeus affair reminds us that government is an aggregate
of men and women with all the flaws innate to humans, but
government itself is of the people, by the people, and for the
people — not of, for, and by individuals, whatever their position
or status. Therein lays
the foundation of the American Republic.
