Falling Generals

The latest scandal occupying the talking heads of the land involves a General (or two), a mistress (or two?) secret documents and hacked email accounts. Somehow it seems like I am the only one who; 1) isn't really surprised that one of the most powerful men in the world had a mistress, and 2) wonders why this is seen as such a huge moral failing.

If I recall recent history General Petraeus was up to his ribbons in the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. Wars started on false pretenses and flawed (or fabricated) "intelligence". Wars that were launched without any clear objective or exit strategy. Wars that have resulted in uncounted hundreds of thousands of casualties, cost uncountable trillions of dollars, and that will end badly with the US claiming victory for establishing failed states dedicated to serving Allah, oppressing women, and exporting religious extremism and violence around the world. Any true rendering of history will surly count the good General, along with many others in both the Bush and Obama administrations, as murderously incompetent at best; war criminals at worst.

Having a mistress would seem to be a comparatively minor offence.

It would be nice to think that the shine falling off the stars of a few high profile General Officers would tarnish the D.O.D. in general. There is no more bloated, wasteful, black-hole of mis-information den of corruption entity anywhere on the planet than the US weapons manufacturing and deployment enterprises. A few of the utterly failed programs that come to mind are the B-1 and B-2 bombers, the F-22 and F-35 fighters, the V-22 Osprey (an accident looking for a job to fail at) and the C-130J. Equally questionable are more Aircraft Carrier battle groups and submarines.

Whoever it is that is driving the US economy "off the cliff" you can be sure he is wearing a military uniform.

Someday, of course, this is all going to come crashing down in a giant landslide of abuse, fraud, stolen money, illegal contracts, bribery ... maybe falling generals are the first pebbles sliding down the hill? When it does happen both of the current political parties will be swept away as well.