David Petraeus is probably the last person you might have expected to wreck his career with an email scandal. Petraeus is smart: He graduated in the top 5% of his class at West Point and went on to earn a Ph.D.
Petraeus has self-control: His self-discipline was "
legendary," according to Time Magazine.
And Petraeus knows what he's doing: During his time as a four-star general and as director of the CIA, he acquired an intimate knowledge of how easily email can be hacked.
And that's why it's so incredible that even Petraeus did the dumbest thing imaginable when it came to his email: He trusted it with his secrets.
Allegedly.
Two limitations of the human mind
The Petraeus fiasco involves a sordid and tawdry "
love pentagon" with five very high-level professionals flirting, harassing, investigating, gossiping, sexting and more.
It also involves issues of national security, inter-agency rivalry, legal boundaries around surveillance and more.
But I'm not concerned about any of that. What I care about is
Gmail.
This whole mess came to light -- and careers and, probably, marriages were ruined, and the government was shamed -- because of evidence harvested from
Google's Gmail.
Everybody should know -- and CIA directors should definitely know -- that cloud-based email services are not safe places to put things you don't want anyone to see.
