Obama Administration: Torture is okay, but gossiping about policy is a felony!

I mean, we don’t prosecute CIA officials who undermine American values by torturing people, but we nail Petraeus for gossiping about policy with Paula Broadwell?

Of all recent American generals and intelligence I would charge for anything, Petraeus would not be in the top 100. Or 500. I mean, Tommy Franks belly-flopped the planning for the occupation of Iraq, and many U.S. soldiers died because of it. Ricardo Sanchez blew the first year of occupation, and ditto. His actions helped create the Abu Ghraib situation, which created many more enemies. Other generals with Sanchez helped the Abu Ghraib mess. Dozens of CIA officials tried to fight a war against terror by engaging in incompetent torture. And so on.

As a friend of mine commented, “We all know that most often, running afoul of regulations and laws is far more harmful than professional malfeasance.”

I think the Obama Administration has mishandled the Petraeus situation from beginning to end. Obama seems to me tone deaf on national security. I know a lot of people who have worked for him who are better than this, so my guess is that this is the fault of the top people, Obama and his closest advisors, who DKSAS in national security, but think they understand electoral politics.

Footnote on timing: My guess is prosecutors gave Petraeus until the end of 2014 to agree to a plea deal, and when his defense attorney insisted last week on a misdemeanor, the prosecutors decided to step up the heat by leaking the threat of a felony charge.

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