Allen likely to withdraw from consideration for NATO post, officials tell NBC News

[No Elephants]

By Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube, NBC News



Gen. John Allen, caught up and later cleared in a scandal over emails with a Florida socialite, is likely to withdraw from consideration for the job of top NATO commander, three U.S. military officials have told NBC News.

A Pentagon investigation last month cleared Allen of wrongdoing, but U.S. military officials said that Allen does not want to drag his family through a nomination process in which the emails would almost certainly come up.

Allen has spoken with Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta but he has not had the chance to meet with President Barack Obama to voice his concerns. A U.S. official said that Obama was aware of Allen’s feelings, and they would meet to discuss the nomination in the coming days.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/11/jill-kelley-5-facts-about-the-petraeus-affair-s-mystery-woman.html

What "wrongdoing" was he cleared of, exactly? There were, by the woman's own words, hundreds of emails. (She said that to scoff at reports of thousands of emails.)

And why does everyone keep referringt to Jill Kelley as a "socialite?" Her husband is a doctor, not exactly Social Register, and she volunteers as "social unpaid social liaison to the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC)," whatever the hell that means.

Oh, and check this out:

{div class=excerpt]ccording to an unnamed mutual acquaintance who spoke to the Associated Press, the two are good friends and see each other often. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Kelley has described Petraeus as being like a grandfather to her family. A society column reports that in 2010, General Petraeus and his wife, Holly, attended Tampa Bay’s annual pirate-themed festival on Jill and her husband Scott’s front lawn. They apparently arrived with a 28-cop motorcycle escort to the classy get-together, which had waiters serving up crab cakes and lamb chops.

[Enthusiast]

1. The glorification of all things military

has grown stale. Considering the nature of recent U.S. foreign entanglements we shouldn't be hearing a peep about the military. You're correct, nothing good has ever come out of that. I suspect the PTB are planing a huge new war. They simply are not be satisfied with peace. And we won't be able to stop it because no one has been called on the botched judgment of the past decade plus.