Lies, Damned Lies, & the News
First and foremost, my congratulations to General Dunwoody: Four-starlink. My bone to pick, as signaled by the title, is with the B.B.C. Plain, simple General (four stars) is a higher rank than Lieutenant General (three), Major General (two), and Brigadier General (one star), but it is neither the "US army's (sic) top rank" nor the "US army's (sic) highest rank." Above General there exists the five-star General of the Army, a rank available only during a declared state of war, contingent on an Act of Congress, and not seen since the demise of General of the Army Omar Bradley in 1981, but yet persisting as a higher rank than four-star General. Yet even General of the Army is not the highest rank in the U.S. Army. Though he only ever wore four stars, John J. "Black Jack" Pershing was in 1919 awarded the rank of General of the Armies and later declared officially senior to the Second World War-era Generals of the Army: George Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, "Hap" Arnold, and the aforementioned Omar Bradley. Finally, in 1976, George Washington was retroactively promoted to General of the Armies, senior to General of the Armies Pershing and indeed every Army officer part, present, and future. So, there are two ranks higher than General Dunwoody's, General of the Army and General of the Armies. Plainly demonstrated, the self-appointed tribunes of the Fourth Estate cannot be counted upon to properly fact-check an article; due more to complacency or arrogance I cannot say. Just something to bear in mind as we move forward.