Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has directed Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey to work with the other JCS members “to review how to better foster a culture of stewardship” among the nation’s most senior military officers, announced Pentagon Press Secretary George Little. “This process is intended to reinforce and strengthen the standards that keep us a well-led and disciplined military,” reads Little’s Nov. 15 statement. Initial findings of this review are due to Panetta within the next few weeks and will help form the basis of a progress report the Pentagon will provide to President Obama by Dec. 1, said Little. Panetta’s directive comes amid several top generals’ questionable activities making headlines this week. Panetta docked Army Gen. William Ward by one pay grade in retirement for Ward’s misuse of government funds when he led US Africa Command. And, the Pentagon inspector general is investigating Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, top US general in Afghanistan, for potentially inappropriate conduct. On top of that was last week’s sudden resignation of retired Army Gen. David Petraeus as CIA director due ostensibly to marital infidelity. (See also AFPS report by Jim Garamone.)
Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, head of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, warned that Russia would remain an enduring threat to NATO and global security, regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine.