Priorities

[sabotabby]

Can someone explain to me why everyone cares about where Petraeus puts his dick than about how many innocent Iraqis and Afghans he's slaughtered?

God bless Amurrca.

Comments

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

I don't particularly care where Petraeus put his dick, but people who have security clearances are usually required to agree to disclose certain types of relationships (because honey traps are such popular ways of getting intel). I've known people, for example, who've had relatively minor security clearances who were required to disclose to their superiors any time they had sex with any foreign nationals. Like, this is a thing that people are asked to do by their bosses.

Spies, according to popular lore, are required to fill out paperwork if they start new relationships because the culture is very distrusting of anyone suddenly getting close to you. If Petraeus didn't do all the right security clearance things, people will get into a fit. *shrug*

[sabotabby]

Way to shatter all of my James Bond-based illusions about the world of espionage.

[misslynx.livejournal.com]

Or as another friend of mine put it in a post that, ironically, was almost right next to yours on my friends page:

As an Obama pick, the left seems to want to defend him on the grounds that an extramarital affair is a personal matter. Which it totally is, unless you are *hiding* it, in which case, it is a potential wedge for blackmail with the guy holding the keys to the spook vault.

So I think that's a big part of it: secret affair = potential for blackmail.

But also, the American public just has a bizarre fascination with the sex lives of famous people...