E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Brent Stirton / Getty Images file
Army Gen. David Petraeus in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 17, 2004.
Gen. David Petraeus built an impeccable 38-year career in the military and U.S. intelligence, displaying a keen grasp of strategy and tactics that succeeded even on the murky battlefield of Iraq and carving out a sterling reputation that withstood the spiteful, partisan environment of Washington.
It came to an ignominious end on Friday, when the 60-year-old resigned as director of the CIA after admitting to an extramarital affair.
Petraeus proved himself indispensable to two presidents – George W. Bush and Barack Obama -- hand-picked by the former to oversee the “surge” strategy in Iraq in 2007 and dispatched by the latter to Afghanistan in 2010 after the unexpected resignation of Gen. Stanley McChristal following impolitic remarks made to a Rolling Stone reporter.
Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., the 2008 GOP presidential candidate and the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Friday called Petraeus one of “America’s greatest military heroes.”
“His inspirational leadership and his genius were directly responsible – after years of failure – for the success of the surge in Iraq,” he said.
Petraeus was born in Orange County, N.Y., on Nov. 7, 1952. He later credited his will to succeed to his upbringing as the son of a Dutch immigrant father
“We have a huge advantage, because the United States is, in the words of Walt Whitman, ‘not merely a nation, but a teeming nation of nations,’” he said in a 2011 speech to CIA employees. “That still rings true to all of us I know, and it rings true to me, a second-generation American, the son of a Dutch immigrant.”
The respected West Point graduate led combat forces in Iraq and Afghanistan before retiring from the military and leading the CIA. On Friday, he made the startling admission that he had engaged in an extramarital affair, and announced he was resigning from his post. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
CIA Director David Petraeus resigns, cites extramarital affair
In a 2011 profile in Newsweek, he described his father as "at heart a crusty old Dutch sea captain," who taught him never to accept anything less than a win. Any deviation from that standard brought an icy-blue stare and a growl: "Results, boy, results!"
Petraeus seemed destined to lead. He graduated in 1974 as “distinguished cadet” among the top 5 percent from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
He also met his wife, Holly, while at West Point, where her father was superintendent. She now works at Obama's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where she is the assistant director of the Office of Servicemember Affairs.
After entering the Army later that year, he went on to earn a doctorate in International Relations from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1987.
His Army career was hardly uneventful.
The Washington Post reported in 2007 that he had had two near-death experiences.
Petraeus' biographer under FBI investigation
In 1991, at Fort Campbell, Ky., he was shot in the chest when a soldier tripped during a training exercise. At Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, he underwent surgery by Bill Frist, who would later be elected to the Senate and become Senate majority leader.
While skydiving in 2000, Petraeus’ parachute collapsed and on landing his pelvis was shattered.
/
President George W. Bush, right, meets Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, upon his arrival at Al-Asad Air Base in Anbar Province, Iraq, on Sept. 3, 2007.
In the American invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Petraeus commanded the 101st Airborne Division and then spent two-and-a-half years in the country, eventually being assigned the job of overseeing the rebuilding of Iraqi security forces.
But he made his biggest mark as commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.
It’s easy to forget how bitterly contentious the surge strategy was in 2007, when Bush pinned all his hopes on Petraeus to carry it out.
The anti-war group Moveon.org ran an ad in the New York Times in September of that year featuring a photo of Petraeus and referring to him as “General Betray Us.” The ad described him as a “military man constantly at war with the facts” and accused him of “cooking the books for the White House.”
Both the House and the Senate later voted to condemn the ad.
Despite the unpopularity of the Iraq war at the time, Petraeus was a crisp and unflappable advocate of the surge strategy. He told the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing to lead the Iraq war effort that U.S. forces needed support from the American people in order for the stabilization effort to succeed.
“We face a determined, adaptable, barbaric enemy. He will try to wait us out,” the general said, calling the struggle in Iraq “a test of wills.”
Even opponents of the plan to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq, including then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, said they respected Petraeus and wouldn’t vote against his nomination.
NBC's Richard Engel and the Washington Post's David Ignatius discuss the breaking news of CIA director David Petraeus' resignation.
“I want the very best leadership for the young men and woman who are going to be put into harm’s way to implement this strategy and I have no doubt Gen. Petraeus is the person to try to pull this off,” Clinton said.
His reputation was further burnished when he was named by Bush to serve as head of U.S. Central Command in 2008.
After Obama’s election, he picked Petraeus to head NATO forces in Afghanistan in 2010 and, in 2011, named him CIA director, succeeding Leon Panetta.
So solid was Petraeus’reputation that his name became a kind of gold standard of integrity and competence. During the battle for 2012 GOP presidential nomination, when Mitt Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom wanted to denigrate another GOP contender, former China envoy Jon Huntsman, he said, “Jon Huntsman is no General Petraeus.”
Some Republicans eyed Petraeus for their party’s 2012 presidential nomination, comparing him to another famous general, Dwight Eisenhower.
The Tampa Tribune reported last year that Steve Mains, a retired Army colonel launched a group called Americans for Petraeus 2012, but Petraeus by that point was heading to the CIA job and showed no interest in running for the presidency or any other office.
In recent weeks, Petraeus’ stain-resistant reputation was called into question in connection with the Sept 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which resulted in the death of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and other personnel, some of whom worked for the CIA.
Noting that there had been two earlier security breaches at the consulate in Benghazi, when improvised explosive devices were placed there in April and in June 2012 , Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C., wrote to Petraeus in a letter on Oct. 15 asking, “Were you aware of these attacks? Did you inform the president of these attacks? If so, what action was taken to protect our consulate? If you did not inform the president, why not?” There is no indication that Petraeus responded.
Petraeus had been scheduled to testify before the House and Senate Intelligence committees next week about the attack on the Benghazi Consulate, but he will no longer be testifying and its not yet clear if the committees will summon him in the future to testify about the attack. Acting CIA director Michael Morell will testify in his place next week.
Retired U.S. Army colonel and recipient of the Medal of Honor, Jack Jacobs, says as difficult as it may be to share such bad news, it's best for the country to get it out as early as possible.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- CIA Director David Petraeus resigns, cites extramarital affair
- Petraeus' biographer under FBI investigation over access to his email, officials say
- FEMA-funded rapid reconstruction program to begin in NYC, mayor says
- During blackout, man uses Toyota Prius to light house
- Investigator matches blood on Sgt. Bales clothes to DNA from Afghan massacre scene
- Video: Security tape shows man crashing stolen jet
- Hispanics to Obama: We helped you, now you help us
Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
There are some very good and honest FBI Agents, there are also some on the other side of the fence and very envious, of many things such as General Petraeus situation....... Security concern, seems to be a joke, for we see the Secret Service giving their souls away for Prostitutes....How many women did Clinton abuse and he walks free.......... It seems the U.S. may have literally shot itself in the foot, in this situation.
Oh, Thank the lord, now he doesn't have to worry about that pesky Benghazi testifying thing.
And, of course, no one at MSNBC is asking why he is conveniently leaving the CIA right before Congress is to hold hearings on the whole Benghazi mess. And Hillary won't be available for comment either. Sounds like a coverup to me.
I have a theory on man, it all has to do with his penis. When a man's penis gets hard it takes up all the loose skin and that tightens down on the brain and he cannot think. Maybe thats where the saying came from " a hard cock has no conscious."
Badger, its now time to shut faux off and put Rush Limbaugh in the can away and get real. Obama is one of the best presidents ever. He has changed the U.S. for the better with the exception of the hard right. See explanation above about hard above. I do think you people touch yourselves inappropriately and that is the reason you can't think properly.
A few comments, from a retired US Army Soldier, Paratrooper, & Officer:
Point 1: "The things that make him a great warrior make him horny. Let it go. You idiots. You must be Baptists or something like Baptists or Methodists or Catholic. This is war. Not a damn game of morals...." Petraeous wasn't a "warrior;" he spent 28 years in the army before experiencing a single day of combat, & that as a Division CDR. Chances of him getting wounded in that position ~ 1 in 100 Billion. And, I've been in combat; MORALS count there, or legitimate combat becomes mere murder.
Point 2: He swore an oath, once as an officer, second during marriage vows. Oath was to God and Country and his wife. If a "man" will lie to God and his wife, he will lie to anyone. (And, I'm not an idiot; IQ in excess of 130, BS, MS, etc... .)
Point 3: You loonies that suppose PRESIDENT Obama was somehow involved in Petraeous actions need see a psychiatrist....or just do us a favor & shoot yourself in the head. What is the next "speculative comment;" That an alien was called down by PRESIDENT Obama to orchestrate the adulterous affair?
Well said. I am tired of the thought that somehow an affair is no big deal or acceptable. I promised my wife that I would love and honor her until death do us part. I take that vow very seriously and if I cant keep that promise, what other morals would I set aside.
Your beliefs don't make you a better person, your behavior does!
You can BELIEVE all you want, but if your actions betray your beliefs you fail.
Petreaus failed!
Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2185:
Paula Broadwell, David Petraeus, an Alpha Personality and a
Telling Body Language Signal ....
Been hearing a lot about how it would be nice if we could just separate the personal from the public life.
We've tried it, and it hasn't worked so well. If we really had known about John F. Kennedy's sexual escapades would we have still voted for him? Some say if Franklin Delano Roosevelt were to run for office today that no one would elect somebody to the presidency who resided in a wheel chair. Nobody talked about the fact that another five-star general who became president, this one named Eisenhower, had an affair with his female (and much, much younger) driver and secretary, Kay Summersby during WWII.
So here we are again, wanting to separate the personal from the public life. If this were done, the use of adjectives to describe life would quickly lead to the following fact: that we are attempting to describe something that no longer exists, unless you want a world defined by images instead of ideals like "duty" and "honor."
General Petraeus had a just "one" affair? Men who cheat that I have known are multiple offenders. I do not buy this "one transgression". I think its a fabrication to help him exit government.
Could it be that Petraeus sees some real crap coming down on Libya and other problems? Petraeus has more military knowledge than all the Obama Administration put together.
Now that he is "officially" shamed, he is labeled as unreliable whenever he opens his mouth. This way Dave can go back the the farm and relax never to talk again how screwed up things are!
Director of the CIA and he saw no problems, when after receiving my security clearance I had to read a pamphlet about morals and exposure to blackmail, and I was a secretary!
i would like to know who this woman works for, or who's payroll she's on? how many other bios has she written? takes 2 to tango. where is the info on her? is she resigning her position? umhhhh ... just a thought.
The cover up continues.
End of story.
You Libs elected a real winner.
On October 26th, 2012, General Pretaeus, in response to the White House allegation that the CIA ordered its operatives in country to stand down when our Libyan embassy was under attack, said the following:
"No one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need; claims to the contrary are simply inaccurate. "
Now, two days after the election, he resigns for having an "affair"? An honorable, combat-wounded, decorated soldier like that? I smell a Benghazi in the woodpile... I smell Chicago-thug blackmail. Here's my scenario:
After Petraeus made his statement on October 26th, and before the election, David Axelrod pulls out the secret dope he had dug up revealing that Petraeus had an extra-marital affair (happens all the time, but that alone will disqualify any CIA member from having top secret security clearance). Axelrod confers with Obama. They approach the General with something like this, "OK, General, here's what we have. If you agree to resign for 'personal reasons' and state that you will not testify in the congressional hearings on the Benghazi mess, this whole matter will never reach the press. If you don't, you'll be exposed, disgraced, forced to resign and have no credibility with the Congress or anyone else."
Now General Petraeus is a clever, brilliant and deeply honorable man. So, he decides to beat these scum at their own game. After due consideration, he agrees to resign for personal reasons, and to state publicly that he will not testify before the House Intelligence Committee. But, unknown to the President and his goons, he slips them a Mickey by calling together his staff at CIA and openly stating that he is resigning because he had an affair. Uh-oh. Now Axelrod has a gun with no bullets. Now they can't discredit him if he were to speak out against the White House before the House committee; he has admitted to it beforehand. If subpoenaed as witness because he refuses to testify, he can present the truth of what happened in Libya, and he will be believed because the White House can't blackmail him - everyone already knows why he resigned. He can speak truthfully and will be believed because he is a reluctant witness who had to be subpoenaed, and he is under oath. Checkmate! Obama and his henchmen are exposed and cornered.
Let's just hope General Petraeus doesn't have an "accident" or sudden "heart attack" before the congressional hearings resume. Obama will do anything to keep in power. For those who voted for him and believe Obama is a good guy, all I can say is that past actions are the best predictor of a person's future behavior. Hitler was adored by an enthralled populace who followed him into annihilation. You Obambies can continue to smugly celebrate your victory. Just get used to saying, "Ja wohl, mein Führer." And don't wail like little girls when the wolf in sheep's clothing you elected strips you of everything. We're all Amerikans now, comrades.
i would say, you pretty much have called this one on the money.
....and if he testified that Obama and his people tried to blackmail him to stay quiet, I think that might be the end of Obama.
Petreus just might save the election.
LOL!
Conspiracy theories are the downfall of the Repub party - when will they learn that the "sky-is-falling" approach isn't being bought by anyone with 1/2 a brain!
Keep it up and DEMS are a shoe-in for 2016!
(from an Independent)
I have been trying to
I'm not much on calling Generals hero's.
To me the hero's are our ground troops that went into a war zone 2-3-4-5-6-7 times. You won't hear their names, you won't read about each one in our history books. Very few will get special honors. Oh, we might hear of numbers that ended up in suicide from mental problems from excessive war zone tours, but not that much of their names. How many names will we hear of the one's that died or injuried the rest of their lives? Yes, they are my hero's, each and every one of them.
It's just the way it is. General's are hero's and retire with their stars on their shoulders.
Any leader has to be a role model for his or her subordinates. Discipline can't be maintained otherwise, and a security breach of this magnitude cannot be overlooked. If the head of the CIA gets away with an extramarital affair and security breach, it's essentially giving everyone in the organization permission to do likewise.
The infidelity (on both sides) aside, if she had access to his e-mail account that's way over the line. Obama did the right thing. Otherwise, he'd have been seen as weak on discipline, especially after all the recent shenanigans by Secret Service agents.
I believe that marital infidelity is a courts martial offense in the US Military. He's retired but he's also an officer in the reserves. She's also an officer in the reserves and every bit as guilty as he is. Both of them were subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice while on active duty. If any part of the affair occurred during active duty they are both subject to UCMJ investigation and penalties.
Isn't it about time we heard from Broadwell?
As long Mr Patraeus does his job, his private life should just remain that. I don't condone the extra marital affair, but what he does on his own time is personal. There are probably many more inhigh military and govermental positions doing the same thing.
Obama blackmailed him to testify about the video causing the deaths of four Americans.
So what does all this have to do with having a lady friend or as many lady friends as he wants? Was he dysfunctional in his employment with the CIA? From my memory Gov. Clinton was involved in extra affairs and later when he became President. He never resigned over it. It was just a couple microcephalic mentality airhead bimbos who wanted the publicity and get a court settlement. Petraeus was willing to go to Iraq and Afghanistan to fight those moslem religious freakazoids. Could we get our oil from some other place but the Middle East? They think nothing of cutting our military and news peoples heads off if they catch them assuming they will go to heaven and obtain dozens of virgins. As long as he is doing his job let him have as many lady friends as he wants. His personal life got no correlation onto his professional life, geez!
Well if the secret service can get some so can Petraeus. As well as all the senators, congressman and everyone else who is human and has a heartbeat.
I don't think Petraeus was going to blow any whistle on the Libya incident. He, however, is/was probably being looked at as being responsible or partially responsible for the tragedy. Since his affair was made public and more importantly, knowing this biographer had access to his email and other records, is of far more importance. While Petraeus might have been a highly decorated military general and was fitting into his role as head of the CIA, he lacked the same integrity in his personal life. In this case someone, anyone, knowing of this could have/might have used this against him, the CIA, even our government. This is not a matter of whether or not Petraeus was a great military leader, it is a matter of integrity and respect for the uniform he wore and keeping the United States safe. I don't think comparing this to what President Bill Clinton did is a true comparison - the president was not sharing his email accounts or important records with Monica Lewinsky. Bad behavior but on a different level.
Petraeus needs to be reinstated by Pres. Obama forthwith. He would make a good future President. From my memory other Generals walked off their jobs over in Iraq and Afghanistan turning in their resignations same as Gov. Palin of Alaska. Petraeus never did. Do the correct thing and reinstate him. Hopefully Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey or Gov. Romney never get into Presidential office. They are still into that god religious stuff. Just GOOGLE it....... RELIGION IS A GIGANTIC FRAUD.....by James Hervey Johnson.
And Gov. Christie goes on national network TV informing millions of viewers he only got 2 hours of sleep the night of the east coast storms. That is pansy, fruitloop mamas boy stuff. Explain that to this nations truckers who often have to load all day and drive all night. There are guys out there who have trucked for 35----40 years.
I graduated the same high school you did, 3 years earlier. What I DO know is that the US has been using affairs as excuses to wreck careers for a pretty short time. I mean- let us consider FDR or more recently the Kennedy brothers. Frankly I don;t know WHAT happened but I suspect it will ultimately turn out to have been to your advantage, that you will land on your feet and finally turn out to have been a good thing. I mean- who wants that CIA job?
Good luck in the private sector and don't let the pinheads I reading above give you a second's thought.
Chris Fisher
Ah, sex and women, the down fall of many a man.
Anita, Do suppose Obama will take responsibility for the Libya fiasco when the truth comes out? Will he do the right thing and resign if guilty? I doubt it very much.
I'd say the CIA had more serious questions to answer here, news which is just breaking now: (see website expendable.tv)
What exactly did they tell the Australians to do? Did the CIA know that the Australians were suppressing the evidential proof of her innocence? Did they know about the security disaster across Australian airports (residual still there)?
These are surely fundamental questions, not just in terms of integrity, but ethics.
With the current scandal with Petraeus, I hope they are not pushed under the carpet.