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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.
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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.
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Leave a Comment:
Is Petraeus falling on his sword?
For you Leftists to deny that in this day of immediate information that the top level people didn't know what was going on real time is just laughable.
The Muslim world loves us don't you know?
Barry gave a speech in Cairo the birds sang the sun shone the sky turned bluer than blue and all was well in the.
Attacks by terrorists on our installations are not in the script.
Let's see? He was to testify in a few days regarding Obamas involvement in the killing of Ambassador Stevens. Nope, can't think of anyone.
He should have stayed in his position. Clinton did!
I don't believe he is resigning because of the affair. I think he is resigning because of what he knows about what happened in U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. With the re-election of Obama, he can't tell the truth, so he resigns (I am sure he had no choice) and blames it on the affair. Anything else just doesn't make sense in this day and age. Someday, after Obama is no longer president, the truth will come out.
Oh yes, just like the lies and fabrications of war criminals Bush/Cheney came to light after they left the country in ruins.
He can't tell the truth? With a subpoena in your pocket you tell the truth no matter who you work for. What an utter moron you are.
The bio on his "biographer" says she is a West Point grad, as was Petraeus. This is more about power than sex. She probably seduced this guy and has some pride over having done so. Her bio also says she is married and has 2 kids. So....she knew better, but did it anyhow.
Another instance of a guy thinking with the little head and not the big one.
Happens every day some where. This just happened to be a high profile 'somewhere'.
What are we supposed to feel for these people?
No joke NoBama2012- the women on this site talking conspiracy nonsense just can't admit to themselves that no matter what a woman's age, social status or level of education, a man's power brings out the slut in them, and likewise, sluts can make a man's power rise...
Raise your hand if you really think this is about an affair. Who cares who Petraeus sleeps with? The timing of the announcement in itself is an indication that there was a deal made somewhere that would go into effect right after the election. I wonder if the American people will ever find out the truth? Perhaps the "good wife", Mrs. Petraeus, should tell them all where to stick it and reveal what is really going on.
Yes Milla, that black chopper over your house is watching you just in case you decide to tell the world all you know about this matter. And you, right wing nuts, have been calling liberals "conspiracy theorists"?
Get over the loss of empty suit Romney and try to say something intelligent some day.
it is a joke you morons believe what you are being served by dc and the lockstep media ....... government doth love the great unwashed ....... you're easy to lie to
So, are any real Americans supposed to roll over and take this "Of course, he won't testify now...." ? What a load of junk! I don't care if they bust him down to Dog Catcher, he was head of the CIA, the agency all the Commies in the White House are blaming. He's in a truth-telling mood and has nothing to lose. And we don't want to hear from him? And don't they just love to pull these stunts on Friday afternoon? I'll be lighting up the phone lines on Capitol Hill Monday morning, and I urge everyone else to do the same. We can't let our beloved America turn into a Soviet-style tinhorn dictatorship without a fight!
You know something? If you stopped watching those scumbags like Hannity, Limbaugh, and the rest of the lunatics at Fox, you could try to learn something useful to say, instead of repeating the totally debunked theory of Soviet-style dictatorship crap that you love to spew.
You wouldn't recognize a between a commie and a piece of cheese on the table, that ignorant you are.
Typical demonizing by name calling.
By the way, the "A" in "Ambassador Chris Stevens" is capitalized.
Has to be truly the oldest story in the world. A man's dick gets hard and his brain goes out the window,
I think many posters have read too many Robert Ludlam, John LeCarre and John Grisham novels.
It is a favorite past time these days to read subterfuge, double entendre's and multiple meanings into every event involving the highly placed and powerful in DC.
Maybe there is more to this than meets the eye, but so what? What are average people posting to a newsvine message board going to do about it? And what effect will it have if you could do something about it?
you're right NoBama2012- the women on this site talking conspiracy nonsense just can't admit to themselves that no matter what a woman's age, social status or level of education, a man's power brings out the slut in them, and likewise, sluts can make a man's power rise...
I have to think there is more going on here than an affair. I don't see how that ends a Washington career, unless it's an affair with an underage boy, or something like that. Something important must have been compromised in the process of said affair- that's the only guess I can make as far as this is concerned.
you did what you had to do David, honer to you, you are not the first man to be led by the heart,
You are still an Honorable person.
Led by the heart? it's probably more like "led by his penis"
your wrong.
Strange, but for some reason I never trusted Petraeus at all. I always though he was another of Obama's "puppets" and now this. Sometimes your gut feelings can be right on.
Convenient timing given that he was supposed to testify on the Bengazi debacle. Non of this makes any sense and for good reason; its complete BS.
Jeez! Who cares where the man puts his weenie? What bothers me about Petraeus is how everyone fawns over his generaliship. If he were a truly great general, he would have told the Bushies that Iraq and Afghanistan were unwinnable farces, which any armchair warrior could plainly see.
EVERYBODY cares about where he stuck his weenie. Some care less than others.
Another object lesson about the perils of personal hubris. The lecture circuit awaits. Make a killing, General.
brilliant-
I what classified information the biographer obtained from him that was subsequently found in the hands of Israeli security, or the Russians, or the Iranians. I would bet some very compromising information was stolen right under Petraeus nose.
This guy is/was a loser. We don't need idiots like that in the US military. Good riddance.
We are the laughing stock of the world with our "sex police" going around and checking on people's private lives.
A sex escapade in our hypocritical society is worse than murder.
Soon it will be forbiden to look at somebody if you are married, that's what the christian lunatics want for this country: their own "christian sharia law."
This is not about Petreaus's sex habits, it is about the President's bad judgement regarding a US ambassador.