General David Petraeus’s affair with Paul Broadwell, which led to his resignation as head of the CIA, became known when Ms. Broadwell sent threatening jealous e-mails to another woman, Jill Kelley, whereupon the FBI began its investigation. Now it turns out that Ms. Kelley was exchanging e-mails with the current head of military operations General John Allen, Petraeus’s successor. Gen. Allen insists that he had no affair with Ms. Kelley, but the 20,000-30,000 pages worth of e-mails they traded have been described as the equivalent of “phone sex.”
What is going on? For one thing, 30,000 pages of e-mail over two years breaks down to 41 messages a day. Didn’t Gen. Allen have anything more to do than trade e-mails–of whatever nature–with a civilian? Didn’t he have a war to fight?
The two previous commanders in Afghanistan before these two were ousted. General Stanley McChrystal, was fired because of an undisciplined drinking party with some Rolling Stone reporters. And the commander before him, Gen. David McKiernan, was fired, though apparently for differences in strategy from the Pentagon rather than for personal failings.
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