Ret. Gen. Marks says behavior in Petraeus scandal is 'very troubling' but 'not a cultural issue'

The plot thickens in the scandal surrounding fmr. CIA Director David Patraeus after announcing his resignation Friday, citing an extramarital affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell. But the scandal now entangles the woman who blew the whistle on the affair, Jill Kelley, and the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen. CNN Military Analyst and Retired General James "Spider" Marks, who has known Petraeus since high school and previously worked with Broadwell, joins “Early Start” with his take on the widening scandal.

Emails between General Allen and Kelley are being closely scrutinized, especially the use of terms like “sweetheart”. He says words like that are

“When you’re a four star general and you’re that far up the chain, you’re extremely exposed,” General Marks says. “Every activity, action, every utterance will be parsed.”

“It’s inappropriate when you’re a four-star general or when you’re at any level in the military to refer to somebody obviously not your spouse, not your children, using that term...It can be taken completely out of context, as it probably will be right now,” Marks adds.

Marks also addresses if this inappropriate behavior is part of a cultural problem within the military. General Marks admits it is "very troubling" but stresses that it is not standard.

“I can tell you emphatically it is not a cultural issue,” General Marks says. “The Army does a magnificent job of correcting itself.” He even expects the military to possibly declare a ‘values attention time’ to reform these issues. “It’s extremely disappointing, but it’s not endemic to the Army certainly.”