Petraeus was set up by Paula Broadwell, who was most likely set up herself by Washington neocon insiders who knew what they were doing. The funny thing is that if Petraeus had a homosexual dalliance with a writer who brought along his own ghostwriter, like Broadwell did, he’d still have his job in Langley. No one would dare say a word, starting with The New York Times, or Gay Times as it prefers to be called.

Talk about American exceptionalism. In 23 states adultery remains a criminal act, and that includes my own favorite, Virginia. This means most of the Kennedys should have died in jail by now. And it gets worse. General John Allen, the Marine who succeeded Petraeus in Afghanistan, is under a cloud for—get this—sending flirtatious emails to some Lebanese hustler back in Florida. They don’t even have to catch you with your pants down; it’s now the thought that counts. What utter crap.

Of all social institutions, marriage is that of which the laws are the most difficult to determine, because they are the opposite of nature. I often ask the mother of my children when she complains about my behavior whether she would prefer me to be a lousy husband and a faithful one, or the opposite. She lies and says the former. Then she laughs. Shelley said a couple should stay together as long as they were united by love—and he meant only sexual love—and called it an intolerable tyranny if a man and a woman stayed together after the sexual attraction had worn off. I agree to a certain extent. As he said, constancy has nothing virtuous in itself. The way to keep a good relationship going is for the man to fool around when he gets the urge and to keep shtum afterward. Never admit and you will make the wife happy. Forget what she says. It’s what you say that counts. And say nothing.

Petraeus committed no crime or breach of national security. If it ever came to blackmail he should offer the names and pictures of other women he’s had while away from home fighting for his country. It’s called the Sukarno defense. A good man has gone down for doing what comes naturally.