National Journal | They were said to be generals cut from the same cloth, David Petraeus and John Allen: whip-smart, adaptable, erudite and above reproach.
Indeed Allen was Petraeus’s hand-picked successor in Afghanistan, having
served as deputy commander at Centcom in Tampa, Fla., first under
Petraeus, then under Marine Gen. James Mattis. Petraeus and Allen, the
soldier and the Marine, represented, in other words, the very best that
the U.S. military has to offer.
And yet, in less than a week, the careers of two very different men
may be ruined as a result of alleged inappropriate behavior with women.
It was scandalous enough when Petraeus stepped down as CIA director
after an FBI investigation uncovered his extramarital affair with his
biographer, Paula Broadwell. The latest hairpin plot twist came early
Tuesday when the Defense Department abruptly announced that the
nomination of Allen, the outgoing commander in Afghanistan, to be
commander of NATO forces was “on hold” pending an investigation by the
FBI and the Pentagon inspector general related to his relationship with
Jill Kelley – the woman who kicked off the FBI probe by reporting
threatening emails she had received from Broadwell, and who has denied
having any relationship with Petraeus beyond family friend.
A senior U.S. defense official told National Journal on
Tuesday that investigators are now looking into “potentially
inappropriate communications” between Allen and Kelley, 37, a doctor’s
wife who worked at Centcom in Florida. According to The Washington Post,
in the course of the Petraeus-Broadwell probe, the FBI uncovered
between 20,000 and 30,000 documents — most of them e-mails —shared
between Kelley and Allen.
In the end, Petraeus’ downfall marks the formal finish to a career
that had in some ways passed its peak. The influence of his signature
contribution to U.S. military doctrine—expensive counterinsurgency
programs that take years to implement, with little to show in the way of
results, as in Afghanistan —has been fading.
As for Allen, his tenure in Afghanistan is proving at least as
troubled as Petraeus’, beset by “green-on-blue” attacks by Afghan
soldiers and officials on allied troops, and a stubborn Taliban
supported by Pakistani elements across the border.
During a visit to Afghanistan I made last May, he came across as
sober and largely humorless in manner as he described in intellectual
terms his strategic plans in Afghanistan. “There is this sense, and it’s
a very Western sense I think, that there is a Napoleonic decisive
battle that tends to end wars. In counterinsurgency, it’s much less
about that than about creating an enduring capacity that grows and
compounds on itself over time," Allen said. "And that’s what’s
happened.”
He was far less of a glamorous or show-boating figure than Petraeus.
Nevertheless, he’s now one of the leading men in a national soap opera.
