If not personally contemptuous, ad-verse criticism of one of the officials or legislatures named in the article in the course of a political discussion, even though emphatically expressed, may not be charged as a violation of the article....The truth or falsity of the statements is immaterial.
Prior Enlisted personnel, however are free to express themselves without fear of reprisal... so F#*K that Marxist Kenyan sack of S#*t.
Well, Martin can bring them back to active service to court martial them for exercising their First Amendment rights. Yeah try that General Martin. Martin would open up a can of political hurt if he attempted to do that. Not going to happen anytime soon.
“Article 88, UCMJ applies to all commissioned officers, even after discharge or retirement”
When Clinton became CoC, my commander told me to mind my P’s & Q’s and not criticize the Draft Dodger while on active duty, citing Article 88. I looked up its history in the Manual for Courts Martial. It dates to 1867 (not 1967 as some thought) and was intended to restrain general officers in the Union Army with presidential ambitions from criticizing the then incumbent President, the very unpopular Andrew Johnson.
I do not believe Article 88 can be practicably applied against retired officers simply because court-martialing a retiree requires bringing him/her back onto active duty for the duration of the trial. This is rarely done and only under charges of extreme moral turpitude or embezzlement.
Years later I got an opinion from the commandant of the U.S. Army JAG School that an active duty service member can indeed criticize the policies of an elected official, even to his face, if there is no personal insult given.
It reminds me of Clinton blustering in 1995 that those flag or general officers who disagreed with his policies vis-a-vis the military “should be willing to come to my office and lay their stars down on the table” by which he meant resign their commissions in protest & forfeit their retirement benefits. A fine lecture in moral courage from a draft dodging coward, by the way.
General Dempsey does himself and his office no service by being seen as a political toady of the White House. He should stick to exercising his duties as Joint Chiefs chairman.