The hurricane that never was
By Mahir Ali | 11/14/2012

THERE may be some substance to the claim that Hurricane Sandy which had been downgraded to a super storm by the time it struck New York and New Jersey helped to propel Barack Obama over the line in last week`s presidential election.

No one has seriously suggested that its effect was anything more than marginal, though. But the loonies who are all too often eager to attribute Mother Nature`s interventions to divine wrath have been quieter than usual, perhaps realising that their spurious arguments would in this instance entail the conclusion that unseen powers were barracking for Obama.

What`s interesting, though, is the contrast with Hurricane Katrina. George W. Bush would undoubtedly have had a much harder time getting re-elected in 2004 had New Orleans been devastated a year earlier.

In the present context, meanwhile, it`s intriguing to contemplate what Hurricane Petraeus might have wrought had it broken cover on the eve of, rather than right after, the election. Sure, it wouldn`t exactly have been easy to pin it on Obama, but it`s likely at least some conservative commentators would have weighed in with potentially embarrassing questions about scandalous behaviour at the helm of the CIA.

But even the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives, which was alerted to David Petraeus`s indiscretions shortly before the election, decided to keep mum, quite possibly because it was uncertain what effect a revelation might produce.

They may well have behaved rather differently had the CIA director been an Obama crony rather than someone hailed as a military hero by both sides of politics, an ex-general credited with masterminding the surge that `turned the tide` in Iraq (never mind the consequent volatile mess) and subsequently achieving something or the other (it`s never been clear exactly what) in Afghanistan.

The worshipful attitude towards Petraeus has been echoed among much of the media, with the ex-general attracting fawning tributes from the likes of CNN`s Christiane Amanpour and the BBC`s John Simpson. Hence the appellation `hurricane` is bound to be disputed. Hey, it`s not even a super storm.

Just a few ripples, at best and don`t mention murky waters.

Never mind the fact that as far as international terrorism is concerned, no competitor comes close to the CIA, and this was the case long before it acquired the lethal drone technology.

No, Petraeus is obviously not to blame for this. And the extramarital affair between him and Paula Broadwell probably ought to have remained a private matter although it must be said that a spy chief`s inability to maintain a minor secret of this sort is, almost by definition, a failure at some level.

It is also interesting that while Petraeus has acknowledged a lapse of judgment and deemed it appropriate to resign, it seems it wouldn`t have mattered had the FBI, almost inadvertently, not discovered what he had been up to.