Well I wanted to see where this affair fit into General Petraeus’ “Rules for living” (link to rules in The Daily Beast/Newsweek)
Here are my thoughts, maybe you have funnier ones.

Remember, Love is a battlefield. – Pat Benatar
1. Lead by example from the front of the formation. Take your performance personally—if you are proud to be average, so too will be your troops.
Hey Grunts, I lead from the front but I start at the back, if you know what I mean.This was no average affair, it was a GREAT affair. I was able to perform 3 times a night with only 1/2 a Viagra!
2. A leader must provide a vision—clear and achievable “big ideas” combined in a strategic concept—and communicate those ideas throughout the entire organization and to all other stakeholders.
My vision? Looking into a great set of tits! Let me tell you about ‘em, they were epic, high and firm. And you could bounce a metal of honor off her ass.
3. A leader needs to give energy; don’t be an oxygen thief.
I have her a hot energy injection, if you know what I mean. Someone was sucking something out of the room, but it wasn’t me.
4. There is an exception to every rule, standard operating procedure, and policy; it is up to leaders to determine when exceptions should be made and to explain why they made them.
I determined my wife wasn’t satisfying me and the army rule about adultery should go the way of don’t ask don’t tell. The rule about not cheating on my wife? This was my exception! So all you H O M Os can suck it.
5. We all will make mistakes. The key is to recognize them and admit them, to learn from them, and to take off the rear view mirrors—drive on and avoid making them again.
Okay. My mistake? I didn’t do it sooner! Then I could make Obama look worse before the election! As least I’m being honest, unlike those politicians who hide their affairs and lie. I’m looking at you John Edwards (insert other names of politicians who had affairs here)
6. Be humble. The people you’ll be leading already have on-the-ground conflict experience. “Listen and learn.”
I don’t like to brag, but I’ve got a 101 millimeter cock and a 9mm Glock.
7. Be a team player. “Your team’s triumphs and failures will, obviously, be yours.” Take ownership of both.
I didn’t have this affair alone, there were a lot of people who made the cover up possible, including the CIA, MSM, Fox News, my aide-de-camp, my body man, my personal admins, several commanders who looked the other way and of course my wife.
8. Don’t rely on rank. If you rely on rank, rather than on the persuasiveness of your logic, the problem could be you and either your thinking or your communication skills. Likewise, sometimes the best ideas come from bottom-up information sharing (i.e., “Need to share” not “Need to know”). Use “directed telescopes” to improve situational awareness.
Speaking of bottom-up sharing? Reverse cowgirl for the win! I think we all know where I directed my “telescope.”
9. Leaders should be thoughtful but decisive Listen to subordinates’ input, evaluate courses of action and second- and third-order effects, but be OK with an “80 percent solution.” “There will be many moments when all eyes turn to you for a decision. Be prepared for them. Don’t shrink from them. Embrace them.” Sometimes the best move is the bold move.
All eyes will be on me, especially when the photos come out! I’m going to embrace my affair, and those eyeballs, and sell the photos to OK Magazine or that French rag that had the nudes of Pippi’s sister.
10. Stay fit to fight. Your body is your ultimate weapons system. Physical fitness for your body is essential for mental fitness.
I’ve got rock hard abs, go ahead and feel ‘em. Come on, feel ‘em you maggot!
11. The only thing better than a little competition is a lot of competition. Set challenges for your subordinates to encourage them to excel.
Guess who leads the “joint” chiefs in affairs? ME! I’m doing better in the sack time department too if we don’t count ol’ Rummy, the man has stamina. Do you know he stands at his desk all day? Same with his women, he never even has to remake the cots. And for the men and women serving under me? What are you waiting for, especially you gay ones, time to let your freak flag fly!
12. Everyone on the team is mission critical Instill in your team members a sense of great self-worth—that each, at any given time, can be the most important on the battlefield.
Love is a battlefield. – Pat Benatar.
UPDATED: Slate has confirmed that the woman who had the affair with the General is Paula Broadwell, co-author of All In: The Education of General David,
I know that you all want to know what she looks like (because it has to be about looks, right?) so you can start your imagination. Link to photo at Gawker



63 Comments

I tried to embed the Pat Benatar video at 4m 16 seconds but I couldn’t figure it out. http://youtu.be/j9J9rTZJBmw?t=4m16s
According to Newsmax, he was hot to trot:
…I’ve got a 101 millimeter cock…
*heh* I’ve always referred to the 101st Airborne as the ‘Choking Chickens’…! ;-)
Interesting. Of course I’m not going to believe any of this until I see it turned into a “ripped from the headlines” show on Covert Affairs. :-)
First Lance Armstrong now A Man Called Patraeus, who will be next? Santa?
Lord love a duck. Twitter’s lit up too. Boy, did this guy ever create a situation for himself.
An example:
My question is: Why would the FBI care? Was there some sort of a threat?
Here is a video of her on the Daily Show
The Daily Show with Jon Steward and Paula Broadwell on her book, “All In.”
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-january-25-2012/paula-broadwell
LOL, oops, we must have done that at the same time! Peaches. LOL!
*heh* ‘All In’ indeedy, eh CS…? ;-)
Do I owe you a Pepsi?
(On my planet we say Jinx and you owe me a Coke.)
The jokes write themselves!
“All in.”
-That’s what she said.
It’s exactly what should happen, C-S, the FBI are the individuals responsible for investigating all security clearances, be it DoD, State Dept, CIA, NSA, DIA, ad nauseum…! It’s actually reassuring that they did open the investigation…!
from Newsmax
From NBC
OMG. I just found out that those “Rules for Living” was WRITTEN by the woman he had the affair with! Paula Broadwell!
Here is more. I didn’t even notice who wrote the list when I created the funny replies.
…the investigation began when American intelligence mistook an email Petraeus had sent to his girlfriend as a reference to corruption…
Now, that is a most interesting wrinkle, Ellie…! ;-)
yeah,
and also if she did try to access his email, she should be charged
oooooo so she’s married too
tweeted and recommended spocko
(I imagine spocko’s imagination is again running wild ;)
Pretty much exactly what Jon Stewart had to say, unfortunately.
A Mountain Dew suits, and I believe it is a Pepsi product, excellent for it’s known sugar and caffeine content!
Recommended. I’m ALL IN.
And according to that NBC article, she’s a West Point grad so it’s not as if she doesn’t know how security stuff works
Way to go, Spocko. Penetrating post.
*heh* Heaven Forbid…! ;-)
Is “stuff” really necessary, dakine?
Would you prefer “crap?” “Rules?” “Guidelines?”
As someone who had more than a few briefings, there is a lot of “stuff” involved in the security and ‘intelligence’ worlds – and a lot of it is pure nonsense, so yeah, “stuff” seemed an appropriate usage and descriptor
Excellent as always, my friend !
LOL …Buzz !
This is worse than those guys who refused to pay their hookers. Words fail. Who puts stuff like that in email?
I don’t think this will be front page material, thanks for reading though.
You know who else was a CIA director? H.W. Bush. I’ll bet he knew how to lock down a few secrets. Besides, cheating on Barbara Bush would be like cheating on George Washington, not a very patriotic thing to do.
I guess that Covert Affairs with Piper Peraboo is really a documentary!
“All In” to come out on video – a @twolf10 production http://is.gd/gcKnCu #Petraeus
Yea, pretty lame, I’ll bet it didn’t even have a 256 encryption key!
Now think of all the people who say racist and threats to the President on their twitter feed or Facebook page. Then they cry when they get busted.
What did that right wing lady say, ‘Get off the fucking internet!”
Yep, I remember a story about a very long affair between Bush 41 and His missus.
If I were this man, any words being expressed from my lips to anybody would be coming from a lawyer, at this point.
I was using “stuff” in another way, dakine. LOL
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better there’s this:
But the thing is, seems to me the ‘affair’ may be some kind of a cover-up for something else. If I’m wearing a tin foil hat, I’ll admit it.
He was exposing classified info, IMHO.
ALL IN
How many times must we say it. “The Internet never forgets.” And of course with 16 Spy Agencioes spying on each other someone in Total Information Awareness is going to share with their friends.
But considering, the recent and future spy failures, Petraeus no longer has to play Spy ss. Spy. So he might be in a better position, except with Mrs. P.
This is certainly another reason to stop these “Embedded Reporters”.
This sounds like the old Soviet Politburo, with one agency that is trusted with intercepting secret communications tasked with taking down the adored leader of another secretive intelligence agency.
America really is a declining empire. Did you see what that woman wore on The Daily Show? She has done nothing to advance the cause of women being taken seriously in the military, absolutely nothing. And she’s a West Point grad her own self!
(Incidentally, immediately after his own graduation, The Man Called Petraeus married the commandant’s daughter, Holly.)
Not the first – is now the time to remind you about Judy Miller?
Covert Affairs – By Jeff Stein | Foreign Policy:
You might want to re-read the paragraph I’ve quoted above bearing in mind that Judy Miller was called “Judy Kneepads” by her colleagues for a reason.
mfi
Paula is certainly of the same ilk, gor…!
Travels with Paula (I): A time to build
Pretty obvious why Petraeus gave his extramarital affair as reason for resigning, it was to steal first run appeal from the ex girlfriend, for when she publishes her version.
I blame the people who manufacture Viagra.
I am not sure what his current… ahem, position is, but who writes emails about “sex under a desk,” how do you do, and thank you very much?
A guy like that can’t just run buck-wild on email and believe that every word won’t eventually hit Twitter, and last time I painfully checked Google News, every major newspaper in the US. Who does that?
Recommended, BTW. This thing is fabulous.
First thing I noticed, because it was distracting.
Oh please, for goodness sake, has it not occurred to one even person here that he will not now have to testify about why he decided to leave a major CIA outpost – the one in Benghazi, several of whose team members had already been subject to harassment by the same militia that attacked and overran the place – without protection.
mfi
Actually, I think he can be subpoenaed and forced to testify (though probably will not be)
Yes he can be subpoenaed and forced to testify. However in the highly unlikely event that he is subpoenaed he can NOT as a private citizen be forced to testify in public, and even in closed session he can NOT as a private citizen be forced to testify on matters for which even one committee member does not have clearance.
The timing of this is all far far too convenient, and I smell a large rat.
mfi
Yeah. The ‘affair’ did seem a bizarre diversion. Wonder who his lawyer is. Somebody with a connected synapse and a bit of cunning looked at this, seems like, from your comment at 51.
Concur.
I remember that interview. It really bothered me that she just shows up in Afghanistan and Petraeus lets her tag along and write this hageographic book — and then then she gets booked on the Daily Show and she comes on dressed like a total hoochie, giggling like a school girl about him.
Something felt really wrong. Still does. The list of powerful men who resign their posts after getting caught having an extramarital affair is awfully short, so it feels like there’s still something else to this story.
I will never forgive you for getting me watching America’s Next Top Model. I’ve lost IQ points to that show.
Luckily you had some to lose, think of the people who started out lower!
I have to admit I watched most of one season when a young women from my hometown was a contestant. She was the daughter of folks I grew up with and I know she was a classmate/playmate of some of my younger cousins as well.
I must be so weird. When I first heard “Petraeus affair” and saw the pictures, I’m thinking, finally this guy goes human. I was glad for him, kinda, thankful, kinda. It’s what I’ve been waiting for forever in these stupid wars – dawn, someone (en masse) to look around and say this hate and killing machine is stupid, I’m not a machine, there are better things for people to do. Ballet leaps and flowers and music. The only thing that would make the story even better would be if she was a Muslim AlJazeera reporter. And if he and she would make that kind of courtroom scene I’m remembering from Capra movies like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. And everyone in the room would reflect on their part in the stupid machine and see another way. Dawn.
On reading the comments here, though, I see the cynical (damn you markfromireland!), and it’s convincing.
> Pop <
I live on bubbles. Beans of love.
Yes, no doubt his resignation had more to do with this story and this one than the sexy one.
Right and of course he can be forgiven in matters of the heart vs. matters of messing up the war. I wonder if he will ask forgiveness as a “sinner” like the Jesus political people do.
Seems so fitting that his nickname is Betrayus; clever.
HOW DARE YOU SAY BETRAYUS! Who do you think you are? MoveOn? He is a great great man! Only his wife and the CIA and all intelligence agencies he has opened up to blackmail and leaks are allowed to call him Betrayus!
I’m going to go with. “It’s not about the Sex, it’s about the lying.”
O Dear…Did I say something wrong? or True? The links above at #59 are great and worth a read; plus something gets you to Rolling Stone, which is quite interesting. He may be a great man; that’s just not the word I would choose (maybe not his wife either, imho).