Petraeus scandal puts four-star general lifestyle under scrutiny from the Washington Post

“There is something about a sense of entitlement and of having great power that skews people’s judgment,” Gates said last week.

“I love the man. I am his biggest supporter. But I strongly disagree,” said retired Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who served as Gates’s senior military assistant. “I find it concerning that he and others are not focusing on the effect on our guys of fighting wars for 11 years. No one was at it longer than Petraeus.”

The above quotes come from an article in the Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/petraeus-scandal-puts-four-star-general-lifestyle-under-scrutiny/2012/11/17/33a14f48-3043-11e2-a30e-5ca76eeec857_story.html

Ok, this is one Army wife's opinion, I am going with Gates on this. Yes, fighting in a long war can have an effect. But don't tell me that Petraeus didn't get home to DC enough to satisfy anything he needed from his wife, Holly. Power is intoxicating. Being 60 and having a 40 year old beauty chasing him was the effect, not the war. Let's lay the blame where it needs to be squarely on the those who stumble.

As Lord Acton said “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupt absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.”