week, that closed door meeting on the hill regarding benghazi. >> everything we know about this so far is that is simply the speculation. and with the touch of paranoia by people who have been flogging this benghazi issue. there is no reason to think that that has anything to do with what caused david petraeus to leave. >> thank you so much. john harwood, cnbc white house correspondent. thank you, thank you, thank you. we should note here, as we did our last hour as well, that the general is not under any sort of -- there is no criminal investigation that is under way. and they do not expect that their inquiry will result in criminal charges. i wanted to make sure we got that in there. right now i do want to bring in thomas rick, senior fellow at the center for new american security. latest book title "the generals: american military command from world war ii to today." among those generals, of course,