Concur with OP.
The article refers to the General's transgressions as minor. I disagree. Flag officers set the highest example and standard of ethical conduct.

Ackerman is a leftylib who likes to make wild assertions, and hates the military.

Any efforts to disgrace this man are racist. Except, of course, his own...

General Ward got busted for what most Generals consider to be perqs of the job. I am personally aware of some military who have done worse --- and if you broaden your view to include all public servants, look at the general thievery that goes on year after year by elected congress people.

OP you are way off base denigrating Blacks and military flag officers as you have. Take a moment and research Ward's stellar career as a combat officer serving in every hot spot including the thankless top US military job in Israel before you slur. He was about to retire with the 4 stars he earned last year when the Obama folks who have an aversion to testosterone busted him of two of his stars...Ward took on tough assignments for the Bush Administration. Your comment also managed to disparage the service of another serious combat officer the Army Vice chief, Gen Austin, another blue-black-well over 6ft4in-balls the size of watermellons brother like myself...guess you have problems with LTC Allen West's military record, too...

A review of his ladder up the Army hierarchy shows that he has always been an affirmative action baby.

When he "took over command" of the troops in Africa, he was not posted there because a military presence was too "insensitive". So he was headquartered in Germany, where he and his wife ended up in an extremely grand estate - so grand that he commissioned a luxurious coffee table book on the place, and charged it to the Army.

There is a lot more out there on this guy - I remember him well from articles I found the last time he was talked about here.

Here's one:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2189976/Gen-William-Kip-Ward-Report-details-excessive-unauthorised-spending-star-general-faces-demotion.html

His lavish headquarters and residence in Stuttgart, and the coffee table book:

http://links.ztechdigital.com/index.php/ztech-tuesdays/wired-feeds/86-top-stories/2124-top-general-undone-by-spa-treatments-snickers-broadway-show

It seems there are some who would defend him because he is black and others who question that his treatment is preferential because he is black. He could well be another Patton or MacArthur but just as easily another Powell or McClellan. I do not think his skin color is why he disgraced himself and his uniform but it seems it is enough to excuse him for some. For a combat leader as #5 mentions he seems to lack any of the important combat awards...Bronze Star, Silver Star or higher.

Whlle he saw himself entitled to lots of goodies, he wasn't smart enough to hide those perks. Shame on him.
(I worked in a flight surgeon's office in Germany, and we did the flight physicals for officers, up to and including General Everest. And the top guys had perks.
I once had a nice trip to The Hague on a major general's C-47, round trip. Sweet deal. And he passed his flight physical.

Black plus success does not equal affirmative action, particularly, in the military. The best example of affirmative action in the Army ocurred 3 year after Ward began his career...50 year old Alexander Haig got his 4th star as supreme allied commander, jumping over 236 other generals, including some Blacks.

AFRICOM was a creation of GWB and W tapped Ward as its first combatant commander...Ward WAS ALREADY IN STUTTGART as #2 in command USAEUR...AFRICOM is still not based in Africa but Ward was successful in schuttling the orginal format of having a state department civilian serving as #2 in this joint command...

Some of these charges are a bit petty, as far as I am concerned. Did he send an employee on a personal errand or did he ask for a favor. I have no problem doing favors. If I'm going to the store and you need something, I'll buy it for you. Just please be sure to at least offer to pay for it.

If General Ward were Sergeant First Class Ward and committed similar offenses, he'd now be Private Ward doing a stretch at Leavenworth. As it is, he'll most likely quietly retire as a 2-star general. There is no justice in the military justice system.

I think affirmative action is usually considered to be preferential treatment based on gender or skin color and not on merit. General Haig was a white male and while he did have political pull it was not based on affirmative action. In my opinion as a retired Army officer having served on various selection boards, affirmative action does occur in the military.

#12, consider an edit: “not solely on merit” … Both Haig and Powell worked in the WH for the Nixon (who instituted affirmative action) and Reagan both became 4 stars and both Secy of State… both earned considerable “political pull” but was it merit versus affirmative action that caused their respective advancements. Haig was a beneficiary of traditional affirmative action which I posit includes nepotism-the good ole boy network–ethnicity-family legacy…etc. Not too dissimilar from Gen Abrams to younger Gen Abrams, or John McCain being the grandson and son of Navy Admirals; or Mario Cuomo to Andrew Cuomo and Jesse Jackson to Jesse Jackson, Jr.; or Gwyneth Paltrow, George Clooney, Michael Douglas, Angelina Jolie, and Charles Wallace and dozens of others in the entertainment/media sphere.

I was under the impression we were not supposed to carry on conversations on here with other posters...is that not correct staff?

I think in general a person who claims to be the smartest in the room is usually not just as the person who claims to be the most honest is not likely to be. And in a like manner the person who refuses to acknowledge affirmative action exists is often the beneficiary of the same thing. If the only way a point can be made is to change the definition of the term under discussion then the point is less than valid.

President John F. Kennedy's Executive Order 10925 mandated "affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.

Nixon instituted and ramped up affirmative action, particularly when he extended it to to college admissions and to federal contracting via the Philadelphia Program crafted by Arthur Fletcher and his boss, then labor secy George Schultz...thus the Black Capitalism surge in the late 60's thru the 80's and the Black Dims detesting it as a token Republican initiative until the early 80's...advocated its dismantling in the 2nd Reagan term precisely because the definition is constantly changing to include more groups, and also because demographic trends show Whites will become a minoritity in this country as they are becoming now in some states...do Blacks and Hispanics really want to see the AA shoe on the other foot...

General Haig was a political general who was jumped over the other generals for one reason: He would not get Congressional approval for any posting in the US. But NATO
CINC did not require Congressional Approval.

Powell? Meh. I was in V Corps when he was the commander but I was a lieutenant at the time, and he never made much of an impression on me. But on the other hand, he was a corps commander for like 10 minutes.