General Ward and General Petreaus: racial double standard?

[demhottie]

William Ward was demoted for, among other things, using a five vehicle motorcade yet Petraeus uses a 28 cop motorcade and no one blinks.

Two very different standards. General Ward is no where near as corrupt- no office space for think tanks, trips to Paris fo his mistress, leaked info to the media, or TWENTY EIGHT COP motorcades, yet he is humiliated and demoted.

I'm not saying Ward was an angel, but this looks like an obvious double standard, and I think it's typical of the tendency to give harsh/excessive punishments to African Americans for behavior that does not even raise eyebrows for whites.

I'm just sayin'...

[MADem]

1. Well, this situation may help Ward a bit--he's still on active duty, isn't he?

He might be able to retire with at least three of those stars, which makes a difference in the checkie-poo at the first of the month.

[DURHAM D]

2. He was demoted one Star just today.

http://www.koamtv.com/story/20084419/general-demoted-for-lavish-travel-spending

[MADem]

6. He won't starve. I thought they were taking him down to two.

While he was waiting for the word, I think he was wearing two.

Retiring as a three-star will cost Ward about $30,000 a year in retirement pay - giving him close to $208,802 a year rather than the $236,650 he would get as a four-star.

Of course, in the case of Horny Dave, you've got Paula--still accountable under the UCMJ--who hasn't started talking, yet. She may trade information for a deal, who knows?

If she can put Petraeus "All In" in the sack with her while he was still in uniform, the former CIA director may be taking a bigass pay cut, too.

[Jeneral2885]

8. US law

Says the highest an officer can aachieve actively is Major General. LG and above are subjected to lots of other funny stuff.

[MADem]

9. Pleasure of the President at the three and four star level.

Those guys don't even get fitness reports--at that point in time, it's all down to reputation.

[Jeneral2885]

10. up to Senate

approval too

[MADem]

11. Yes, Senate always confirms, from 0-1 to 0-10, and Warrants, too.

But the Senate has no say if the President wants to send someone home. That's a CIC decision at the rarified rank levels--he could fire someone more junior too, if he'd like, but he leaves that to the selection board/administrative process of each service. Of course, if a Service Secretary or JCS member took issue with someone, their input would be considered very strongly.

On rare occasion, (usually GOP) Senators will hold up "the list" if they don't get their way about some picky-shitty piece of legislature. I saw that twice--pissed off a lot of people who were waiting for promotions.

[Tutonic]

3. Yep. POS Panetta.

[DonViejo]

4. It's the "among other things" that cost Ward...

and what a HEAVY price he paid!

Retiring as a three-star will cost Ward about $30,000 a year in retirement pay — giving him close to $208,802 a year rather than the $236,650 he would get as a four-star.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/general-demoted-lavish-travel-spending

[orpupilofnature57]

5. And your right !! obviously bias .

The treatment of our President is a prime example, he's chastised for trying anything , while Shrub was facilitated in every failure he IMPOSED on us .

[Jeneral2885]

7. US law

Says the highest rank an officer can achieve is major-general. I don't know the ickies after that, but I doubt its racist.

[bluestate10]

12. There was more involved with the Ward spending than one motorcade.

There was a pattern of excessive spending by Ward. I think his demotion is a warning signal to all other top officers in the military.

[bluestate10]

13. The military is investigating Patraeus.

Since the woman that he had an affair with is reserve officer. If Patraeus had the affair with her while in uniform, he is going to have big, big problems, he will lose some of his five stars and his retirement will be impacted.

[Honeycombe8]

14. Was Ward Director of the CIA? nt