Agree with OP. Time for the "social experiments" in our military to cease.

He's entitled, he's black. That's Obama's house rule.

He did the wrong thing. They did the right thing. Time for him to stay retired with two stars. As the article says, a military person of lower rank could end up with far worse punishment.

Dempsey is a wuss. One wonders what skeletons are in his closet.

I thought Gen Dempsey was busy calling a Florida pastor about a YouTube video. I agree that this PC General should be relieved. He has shown that he holds the military justice system in contempt and overstepped his authority in calling Pastor Jones.

Time for the "social experiments" in our military to cease??? Entitled because he's Black??? Democrat political officer??? As I have pointed out on previous threads about Gen Ward, the major appointments resulting in his last two stars came under Runsfeld, Rice as NSA, GW Bush, and Gates, including the thankless job of leaving a prestigious command post to serve as the top military general shuttling between the Israeli's and Palastinians and tilting up a new command in Africa with a hybrid command structure including State and USAID. Now, for social experimentation, look at Ward's replacement at AFRICOM who co-chaired the review committee that brought to an end DADT and got the AFRICOM command as a prize. He now is over an area that includes the hotbed of Al Queda in North Africa. How's preventing its spread working out? Ward will be allowed to proceed with retirement he commenced in early 2011 with the 4th star he earned...

Just one more piece of evidence that when you're up there in the military, you become political, and like your brother politicians, when asked to leave, they send you off with lotsa money to ensure that they'll get theirs when it's their turn.

Well, let's see. First Dempsey tells veterans to stuff their first amendment rights, then tries to intimidate a private citizen, now attempts to provide support for the criminal acts of a fellow general officer. Dempsey is so obviously not fit to serve any longer. I hope President Romney demands his resignation come January 2013.

I didn't see any words from Dempsey in the article. Maybe I missed them, that can happen.

Supposedly other "officials" of some sort told AP of Dempsey's position.

Personally I would prefer that all Generals say less to reporters on a wide variety of topics. And certainly about a case like this.

Retired prior enlisted officer here (1968-1993). The corporatist politically correct GOs that populate the Pentagon these days are proof that such things do rot from the head down. God bless our troops, and may they and we prevail.


Girl's Hubby

There certainly does seem to be enough controversy about this general that boils down to whether or not affirmative action is good or bad. Or whether a general is judged and punished by one set of rules and an enlisted person by another. Who cares who was in the upper levels of government when he got his last appointment. The fact is that he did things that caused him to be relieved of his command and consequently should not be allowed to retire at the four star rank which he did not hold honorably.

To say that he ought to be allowed to leave the Army at his four star rank is in effect affirming that he is being held to lower expectations. There is no excuse for abusing a position of trust and one should certainly not be rewarded for doing that.

Ward was not relieved of his command..the review of Ward became known after he successfully concluded his command and was entering scheduled retirement...Gates and the vice chair of the Joint Chiefs attended the chang of command ceremony and heaped praise on Ward and presented a medal to his wife...the woman who was acting IG oversaw the so-called investigation...

My error #5 and I apologize for saying General Ward was relieved of his command.

He still, nonetheless, did enough to cause the Army to take a closer look at him at the time of his retirement and I guess the "woman" serving as IG at the time was just making things up as she went along, you know the way women do; however "she" found that Ward had engaged in inappropriate activities, including submitting expense reports with extravagant and unacceptable charges, inappropriate use of military staff, and misuse of government funds. The amount involved was "not an insignificant sum of money."

I do not see how slurring one person because of gender is any more appropriate than slurring another because of race.

The "making things up as she went along" is totally sarcastic but I do not know how to indicate that in the middle of a paragraph.

You are looking at the military stratosphere here, a 4 star general officer with a long career, who has been charged with essentially stealing government money. That does not happen very often, or at least misconduct like that does not become public very often.

When something like that happens, all decisions made by the Dept. of Defense will be highly political in nature, as 4 star generals are political animals, with input coming right from the White House, especially during the Obama era where the general happens to be a black man.

Leon Panetta is a creepy guy who will wait until after the election to make a decision.
Dempsey is equally creepy, in my opinion. If he is talking, he should not be.

I'm retired Air Force, #9, and not familiar with all of the terminology used in other branches. What is an enlisted officer? Advancing from the enlisted ranks to the officer corps? A warrant officer? A NCO? Not questioning your comment, just curious about the term.

He doesn't want to be considered racist so he is ignoring this guy's activity using taxpayer dollars to live the high life. Wonder if General Ward got recommendations from Michelle?

Here is information on General Ward's assignment as of August when this was written:

Ward stepped down early last year after serving at the Europe-based Africa Command, and he intended to retire. He did all the paperwork and was hosted at a retirement ceremony in April 2011 at Fort Myer, Va., but the Army halted his plans to leave because of the investigation.

Since then, he has been working in Northern Virginia, serving as a special assistant to the vice chief of the Army.

That Army office long has been used as a holding area for general officers of varying ranks. For some it's a way station where senior officers under investigation go to await their fate.

A fairly straightforward account of this unfortunate matter is here:

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2012/08/16/army-probes-generals-alleged-lavish-spending.html

Those who have apparently been offended by what they see as racial slurs against General Ward do harm to their case when they indulge in obvious gender slurs like this one - "the woman who was acting IG oversaw the so-called investigation...".

No gender slur was intended…just had a lazy-Obama moment in this forum and didn’t pull up the name of Ms. Lynne Halbrooks…folks tracking Gen Ward’s case in my circles would know who I was referring to, kinda like saying “whatshername,you know”…she has been under steady pressure from the GOP members of Congress over much bigger issues, whistleblower cases, the missile command stuff, etc…

As I remember, there was an article on here about this general some time back. The general and his wife seemed to be trying to keep up with the first grifters.

Please never forget that Leon Panetta was Monica Lewinsky's pimp.....

Yo..yo... why is everybody pickin on this po black man???? When Moochelle went on her spring break trip to Africa she took her kids her mom and a whole bunch of pals. Costing the US taxpayers MILLIONS of dollars. No body squawked about that trip. So the General was just emulating his Commander-In -Chief's family. No problem...Right?