On Friday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer said the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus was a regrettable situation that might ultimately help shed light on the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Libya.
“We will unravel all the threads of this in time,” Krauthammer said. “We’re just in the first few hours, but I think it’s worth noting what we do know. This is the end of a career of a truly great American. He did something that hadn’t been done by a general since the Inchon landing in the Korean War, when MacArthur by a maneuver managed to save a war that was being lost and save South Korea.”
“No one had done anything like that until David Petraeus did that in 2007 and 2008 in Iraq,” Krauthammer continued. “That was a lost war. It was headed for chaos, civil war, bloodshed and unending trouble for us. And he pulled off a surge that rescued the war. What happened after in Iraq and what happened after in Korea are other stories, but that is undeniable. It is one of the great achievements, and he pulled it off. He distinguished himself in Afghanistan. And whatever happens and whatever we learn, this is a real tragedy.”
Krauthammer added that Petraeus’ affair, which may have compromised national security, might actually have a silver lining. (RELATED: FBI investigating alleged Petraeus mistress for trying to access CIA head’s email account)
“The other thing I would add is what John Bolton said, and I think he’s absolutely right. There is no way that this is going to get in way of the Benghazi story coming out. In an odd way and sort of [a] discouraging way, now that the story is attached to a sex scandal, it will become a story that will be pursued by the media. … They were holding off to protect Obama before, and also perhaps out of lack of interest. But just given the nature of our journalism, it will now become the hottest story around. And you can be sure that even the mainstream papers, which did not show any interest whatsoever in this story up until the election, are going to get on it and now it will become — it will unravel.”