The moral highground !

Many people will be surprised to hear that General David Petraeus has tendered his resignation as head of the CIA, and after a pause of several days, President Obama has reluctantly accepted it.  David Petraeus was America's top four star general, credited with turning around the Iraqi war and using the troop surge to rejuvenate the mission in Afghanistan.    When he retired from the army at 60, he accepted the post of CIA head and there are indications that he might have become a contender for the job in the oval office in 2016.

The reason for the resignation is clear.  Petraeus admits that he made a serious " lack of judgement " when he entered an extramarital affair with the woman who was writing his biography.  He accepts that as a person who has access to the nation's military secrets, this  puts security at risk by actions that could lead to compromise.

Strangely, this sexual liaison came to light by pure chance when the FBI was conducting an unconnected investigation and stumbled on emails revealing a line of communication.   This was entirely a private matter and no laws were broken, but it does throw the spotlight on the strange moral rules that seem to apply to some - but not to others.

Once again sex rears it's ugly head, and yet sex is not the bogey it was fifty years ago.   That was a prudish era when any unmarried woman having a child could expect both church and government to collude to use illegal methods to seize her baby and put it up for adoption.    Divorce was almost as bad as the " Scarlet Letter :".   The ending of a marriage in the divorce court usually ended promising business careers and halved the chances of a new marriage.  In many jurisdictions, being named the guilty party in a divorce was a certain path to penury and social discrimination.

How things have changed !    Virginity is as rare as hen's teeth.   Church weddings are out of style and many dispense with a wedding entirely, substituting it with living together on a " try before you buy  basis."   Children born out of wedlock are so common that schools sometimes have several kids from the same family, all with different surnames.   Those living a " Gay " lifestyle are no longer breaking the law, and we are moving closer to same sex marriage.

It seems strange that a man with an exemplary record of service to his country should feel it necessary to fall on his sword when a simple sexual attraction that should be a personal matter between him and his wife is trumpeted across the media and is reported in a tone of  " disgrace ".   Others before him who held high office have been involved in similar liaisons - and survived.     Indeed, a sitting President was forced to confess just such a liaison and many of his predecessors were screened by a forgiving press when their affairs became common knowledge.    We seem to have differing standards when it comes to the moral highground.

Any person being considered for high office would be well advised to have a long and careful look at their past history.   Even a minor indiscretion will probably emerge to haunt them because the business of politics and career enhancement makes it certain that those salivating for the job held will be quite ruthless in searching out and using smear as a weapon of destruction.

The pity of it is that people like David Petraeus are the type of leaders that we need to guide us out of the mess that is strangling the world economy.