Posted on 06/04/2007 4:49:41 AM PDT by Flavius
SAN ANTONIO: The man who led coalition forces in Iraq during the first year of the occupation says the US can forget about winning the war.
“I think if we do the right things politically and economically with the right Iraqi leadership we could still salvage at least a stalemate, if you will — not a stalemate but at least stave off defeat,” retired Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez said in an interview.
Sanchez, in his first interview since he retired last year, is the highest-ranking former military leader yet to suggest the Bush administration fell short in Iraq. “I am absolutely convinced that America has a crisis in leadership at this time,” Sanchez said after a recent speech in San Antonio, Texas.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailytimes.com.pk ...
Big MSM contract?
Yes, that’s why he’s an EX-general.
And the cause of this would be Tying the hands behind ou r soldiers back with Pc stuff? They are trying to protect the civilians who are brainwashing the next generation of killers.
But what would he know? Not like he was involved or anything.
My sentiments exactly.....losers, or people who are not confident in the ability of those they command, need to be relieved and shuffled back to a desk....
“We’ve got to do whatever we can to help the next generation of leaders do better than we have done over the past five years, better than what this cohort of political and military leaders have done,” adding that he was “referring to our national political leadership in its entirety” - not just President George W Bush.
Sanchez called the situation in Iraq bleak and blamed it on “the abysmal performance in the early stages and the transition of sovereignty”. He included himself among those who erred in Iraq’s crucial first year after Saddam.
Thank you, General Sanchez, for your lucid comments. By the way, what is your opinion on the illegal immigrant bill before Congress? The same as Westley Clark's?
No specifics offered.
I suspect Generals with this mentality are the reason we’re not as far along as we should be.
Sounds like sour grapes to me. Good riddance
Not sour grapes, he is gunning to be the VP on a Dem ticket. Mark my words.
Must be the good “EX-General” has a gig on CNN or ABC.
It is very possible for General Sanchez to be as vile as he's painted in these comments -- he probably isn't -- and still be right.
YES, jackass, and you were part of the problem!
After Jimmy Carter, Richard Clarke, Madeleine Albright and Bill Clinton, Sanchez is the new loser to dare say how we have to do the right thing after having failed to do it when he was in charge.
Pathetic.
“YES, jackass, and you were part of the problem!”
So are those who refuse to admit there may have been abysmal decision making failures from the get go. Shooting the messenger only shows the short-sighted mentality of many on this thread.
Not me.
But then, I never expected it to be. Nor do I expect the situation five years from now to be the one we planned. Life doesn't work that way.
The following quote posted to another Sanchez thread by LZ_Bayonet is well worth repeating here, I think:
"There are some veterans of the Civil War in here. They will remember how, shortly after Sumpter was fired on, a large number of enthusiastic people who were not themselves going into the army began to shout, "On to Richmond," and to say that Richmond should fall in sixty or ninety days. It took four long and weary years; and the same people who in 1861 had shouted, "On to Richmond, the war must be ended at once", in 1862 wished to declare the war a failure and voted to abandon it because it had not been ended at once. Perhaps some of the older gentlemen remember that, don't you? Exactly. The hope of the nation then lay, not with the men who expected the immediate impossible, nor yet with the man who was cowed and did not believe that you could put the war trough, but with the man who recognized the difficulty of the struggle, who, recognized that they had a most stubborn gallant enemy to fight, and who went in and enlisted for a three years' war and saw the war through."President Theodore Roosevelt - May 31, 1907
Or, as that other great American, Gunny Highway, said: to overcome adversity we must "improvise, adapt, overcome." Giving up isn't on the list of things to do.
These dumbasses, rats dont vote for military men.
Uh, he hasn’t been involved in THREE years.
I would be very interested in hearing exactly how General Sanchez defined "victory", "stalemate" and "defeat". Something tells me it would have no relationship to reality.
Which suggests to me that the reporter is misrepresenting his statements.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.