The fall of Petraeus

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.