A few thoughts on Petraeus' resignation

1. Had a very good discussion by my excellent Facebook friends on a post over there.

2. The first report I saw giving a deeper reason for the events was this one:

Official tells me sevrl people who knew Petraeus got anonymous harassing emails. So investigation started. Emails then traced to Broadwell. -- @MarthaRaddatz via Bryan Jones

3. In some ways, the whole thing is just all so depressingly cliche. It was obviously a serious relationship (v. a passing fling), if Paula Broadwell had his Gmail password. That she would write anonymous emails from that account shows more shockingly bad judgement on her part.

4. I wanted to find out more about Broadwell. Her personal website is down, but that's why we have Google cache.

This quote, particularly, about the biography she wrote hits the wrong note in retrospect:

While conducting research over the past three years, Broadwell was afforded extensive access by General Petraeus, his mentors, his subordinates, and his longtime friends. Over the course of Petraeus's command of ISAF-Afghanistan from July 2010 through July 2011, Broadwell embedded with the general, his headquarters staff, and his soldiers on the front lines of fighting across Afghanistan to chronicle the experiences of this American general as they are brought to bear in the terrible crucible of war. All In draws on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with Petraeus and his top officers and soldiers and on Broadwell's frontline reporting experience to tell the inside story of this commander's development and leadership in war from every vantage point.

5. What about the children? Each had two, and Broadwell's are comparatively young.

All in all, this is a big disappointment. We really could have continued to use Petraeus' excellent public service.