Petraeus is Still an American Hero

General David Petraeus is still an American hero.

First, let me tell you what I'm not saying. I was brought up by a widow who left her job and was replaced by a 22-year-old man at twice the salary. My wife is a med school professor. I don't want a return to the time when women  were treated like chattel.

Because he was head of the CIA Petraeus had to resign. But this doesn't take away his tremendous achievements. After George Bush, and the egomaniacal Donald Rumsfeld had truly screwed up an Iraqi war we should never have been involved in, Petraeus, with his novel ideas turned things around.

He made the Army, at a certain level, more intellectual and open. He inspired others.

And the woman he was involved with was a female version of himself, not a subordinate he could push around.

It's easy to forget that Gen. Ike Eisenhower had a relationship with his British driver, Kay Summersby, while planning the biggest secret of the war, the place and time of the D-Day invasion. FDR had Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd.

As the head of the CIA, Petraeus was vulnerable. In his code of personal conduct he had to resign. But that should not strip him of the admiration the American people have for him as a hero.