2013 is the new 410.
The best writers tend to be older people. It’s not just ‘the wisdom of age’ which makes this true; I believe that effective imagery comes from life experience. Gripping descriptions come from having been there, and often the truth is stranger than fiction.
I was struck this morning by the strange poetry swirling through General Petraeus’ life. We know him from his sordid affair with Paula Broadwell, and the resulting Jill Kelley slime. We should know him as ‘the man in charge of the CIA when Benghazi happened’. In the future, we’ll know him for his ‘financial acumen’, since he’s been hired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
In May, General Petraeus landed a gig with KKR; the investment firm famous for its leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco. Barbarians at the Gate is the name of the 1989 book about Nabisco’s buyout.
‘Barbarians at the Gate!’ The latest chapter in Petraeus’ life provides us with the most gripping imagery of all. Dust clouds, shiny helmets, body odor. As the muse of poetry would have it, ‘barbarians at the gate’ sums up the latest chapter in J. Christopher Steven’s life too, or so the administration would have us believe.
Personally, I stopped paying attention to Petraeus way back when he got his teaching post at CUNY. Shame on me, because now he’s in the investment business.
It should be clear to everyone what happened with ‘The Petraeus Affair’. Those members of the armed forces who christened Petreaus “General Betray-Us” had him pegged. The over-blown relationship with Broadwell was ‘outed’ to distract from the debacle at Benghazi on top of Obama’s re-election. Now Mrs. Clinton is distancing herself from decisions surrounding the attack. 2016?
The General is being well paid for his act of seppuku. He can now prostitute his military-acquisition contacts for a company that is (or was) struggling to find new direction as its founders aged out.
David should feel quite at home. KKR is known for investing in telecommunications– the industry that got retroactive immunity for its crimes against the American people. Petraeus will do business with a group of CIA-tag-alongs straight out of Central Casting. He’ll be working with men like Sir Arun Sarin, formerly of Vodafone (his part of the business became Verizon in 2000). Sarin is a man who typifies Britain’s special relationship with the US by playing fast and loose with the law. Also on the roster is Alexander Navab, whose parents cut-and-ran after the Iranian Revolution, when the CIA-puppet-Shah was knocked from power. (‘Sunni’ is the new ‘Imperial’!) And these are just the guys who talk to the press.
Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts themselves are notoriously camera-shy. Why? According to legend, Henry Hillman, an original KKR investor, said: “a whale is harpooned only when it spouts”. Inspires confidence, doesn’t it? Well, now Petraeus has joined the (quietly!) raging horde.
But what are barbarians without their babes?
Jill Kelley is struggling to grow her notoriety into a more permanent fame, while Paula Broadwell seems to have been trampled in the General’s dust, at least for now. I have some sympathy for Paula: I’m not sure that there is an entirely honorable way to advance oneself in her career-of-choice. Her behavior reflects larger failings than just her own and somewhere during the struggle she lost the plot.
It’s worth remembering that the same pundits who whaled into Paula for being a slut would have probably sucked up to her, had she been able to leverage her relationship with Petraeus into a position of influence. In Washington, sleeping your way to the top is only ugly when it doesn’t work. In the meantime, Paula can take solace in the fact that Boudica didn’t win against the boys either.
I challenge any writer to make up imagery better than Petraeus’ latest move. An elderly ‘warrior’, who’s made a career out of hostile takeovers, teams up with some aging ‘barbarians’ who’ve made a career out of leveraged buyouts. A trail of bodies lies in everyone’s wake. And if Verizon’s new government deal is anything to go by, we can expect more raping and pillaging to come.
