Posted on 10/12/2007 8:41:50 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, who led U.S. forces in Iraq for a year after the March 2003 invasion, accused the Bush administration yesterday of going to war with a "catastrophically flawed" plan and said the United States is "living a nightmare with no end in sight."
Sanchez also bluntly criticized the current troop increase in Iraq, describing it as "a desperate attempt by the administration that has not accepted the political and economic realities of this war."
"The administration, Congress and the entire interagency, especially the State Department, must shoulder the responsibility for this catastrophic failure, and the American people must hold them accountable," Sanchez told military reporters and editors. "There has been a glaring unfortunate display of incompetent strategic leadership within our national leaders."
Sanchez lashed out specifically at the National Security Council, calling officials there negligent and incompetent, without offering details. He also blasted war policies over the past four years, which he said had stripped senior military officers of responsibility and thus thrust the armed services into an "intractable position" in Iraq.
"The best we can do with this flawed approach is stave off defeat," Sanchez said in a speech to the Military Reporters and Editors' annual conference in Crystal City. "Without bipartisan cooperation, we are destined to fail. There is nothing going on in Washington that would give us hope."
He faulted the administration for failing to "communicate effectively that reality to the American people."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Litekeeper
MAJOR, US Army, retired
The timing of ths sounds rather suspicious to me.
Sounds to me like a general who may have been fired as head of the troops in Iraq..who now can’t stand the idea of seeing Petraeus succeed where he failed.
Tell him to put his name on the list....It seems everyone’s doing it. Sheesh - shameful.
Is it me or did Gen. Sanchez suddenly develop an affinity for lib-speak? Accusing civilian government employees of a “lust for power”, his misuse of the word “strategic”, and some unseemly and ungeneral-like phrasing has me wondering.
MoveOn couldn’t have scripted Sanchez’s words any better.
Also, it might be someone who stands to gain something by saying these things at this time. They are really pulling out all the stops, aren’t they? This week they tried to turn Turkey against us. When we went to war in 2003 the story, which was repeated all over the Middle East, spread the lie that all we wanted in Iraq was to take over the country and steal the oil. Now that they’ve found out we weren’t doing that, the tribal leaders are working with us. What next?
From the General who will be remembered forever for Abu Ghraib.
It's shameful, isn't it?
I left active duty, honorably, as a Captain in '95 when my obligation was up because I was sick of serving self-serving, Clinton-promoted, guys like this a-hole.
I still serve in the Guard. We have a terribly political, weak and self-interested officer corp now. It's disgraceful....
Exactly, the guy was in charge on the ground and it failed. Now he points his dirty fingers at the President.
Must be getting ready to run for office as a Democrat. As I have said many times, any military man who is a Democrat has a self hate complex.
Bulldawg Fan
Major, US Army, Retired
As Exhibit One I offer the newspaper's employee's prominent mention of Abu Ghraib and not a hint of the horrible torture, mutilation, and beheadings of captured American soldiers and civilians.
Panties on the prisoners' heads, barking dogs, and snickering women pointing at bare-assed prisoners at Abu Ghraib are all forms of torture far worse than eyeballs being pried out of sockets, proclaim the employees of the MSM.
Sounds to me like he wants a Network arm chair general gig.
Lose a few skirmishes and blame the Republicans. Chris Matthews will love him.
These pompous Clinton Generals make me sick!!
Yep. This will be another man that used to be slimed by the Drive Byes that will be now built up as a hero since he is taking shots at Bush.
What a shame.
Wait... we allowed that viper’s den of the State Department to plan the after battle efforts? No wonder it was such a mess!
“especially the State Department”
especially ‘Democrat supporters’ in the State Department
It pretty bad when a person of Mexican origin has EARNED the title of Gringo. Sanchez must have wanted that fourth star pretty bad. When you blame everybody around you for your misfortune there is no doubt where the fault lies.
Is this from Sanchez, the catastrophically flawed commander who was kicked out on his ear? That one?
This sounds very “Soros-ish” to me...hmmm...
Lots of criticism of Sanchez, but at least noone disagrees with his asssessment of “catastrophically flawed’.
“This sounds very “Soros-ish” to me...hmmm...”
______________________________________________________________
Guess there’s a well-padded position waiting for him at a Soros think-tank and this was the price of admission.
OK, I'm listening general. What is your plan for victory?
"The administration, Congress and the entire interagency, especially the State Department, must shoulder the responsibility for this catastrophic failure,
Care to offer any specifics?
Sanchez lashed out specifically at the National Security Council, calling officials there negligent and incompetent, without offering details.
But its the details that we need, general. Otherwise how do any of us have a clue what you are talking about, if we are going to hold our leaders accountable as you say.
or he’s writing a book...
just my opinion, and speculation.
Bush decided that the well being of the
Saudi royal family was more important
that the interests of the American people.
.....
the best plan for handling post-Saddam Iraq,
was taken off the table, at the insistence of the
Saudis and/or the Turks. that plan would be
federalism and grass roots democracy. Instead we got...
A horrible policy of command from the center.
Bush and Cheney decided everything.
Sanchez had no cards to play.
Now that Petraeus' plan is working better, Petraeus will get credit and Sanchez will be criticized.
A classic CYA--and the press will carry his water for him.
But that's Bush's fault?
Another great example of the Peter Principal. Sanchez was finally promoted to a level where his incompetence showed. He failed the country by not doing his job and now wants it to be someone else’s fault.
Even if he really believed everything he is saying, does he not realize that he is only encouraging the enemy and putting our men and women in greater danger??
This fact only proves that he is a bad apple.
You can tell some of these generals went to the ‘Jimmah Carter School of America Bashing’ while working their way up military chain of command.
Read this POWERLINE post on WHAT THE GENERAL REALLY SAID.
His was not an anti-war, anti-Bush speech. It was an anti-MEDIA speech. And, as usual, the press chose to report it as a slam at Bush.
I am convinced that the best service a retired general can perform is to turn in his tongue along with his suit and to mothball his opinions.
Omar N. Bradley
Sums up about anything Washington gets involved in of late..
My thoughts exactly! I thank him for his service, but IMO it is unseemly for ANY retired military officer to criticize the CIC in time of war.
i think he has a point with the state department.
The second they become involved in anything it comes to a grinding halt. The state department does not want solutions they want issues for long term job security.
A long draw out “issue” is perfect for the state department model.
After reading the speech, I think Sanchez is just spreading the blame around witha dash of CYA...he was the ground Leader in Iraq in 2003-2004 and did not get the job done....I agree we need more transparency and should begin by investigating how this General failed and Gen Petreus on the other hand has succeded!
He's writing a book. 'Nuff said.
He is. That was reported on a TV news report this morning that was rehashing his statements.
Would love to be a fly one the wall at some future West Point function where Gen. Sanchez and Wussy Clark show up!?!?!
Read what the general actually said in context here. Ignore what the press write, read the real stuff, something most are not inclined to do. Much easier to say "I wonder what the WashPost thinks about this", when that is the surest ticket to doom ever written. In the Internet era, there simply is no need to do that, the Democraps whole propaganda campaign is based on an ignorant, uninformed electorate -- Don't be one of them.
In it, the real speech, Sanchez slams the media, their propaganda and their lies for what it is -- Deliberate dereliction of duty to report facts, accurately and timely to the public. Of course any well read Freeper knew that.
The war is being won, and the "all in on lose" betters Peloser-Reid cannot afford that to happen. Look for them to do anything in the coming days. Yes that includes the main staple of the Democraps and their parrot media, lying about anything. Stay sharp.
I wonder if there’s been any unusual activity lately in his bank account?
You’re forgetting that Bush appointed a ‘war czar’ to oversee the Iraq war. The war is being conducted by the business interests of transnational corporations. It truly is a ‘contractors’ war. And that is why we cannot ‘win’.
General Sanchez's resentment of this is completely understandable and justified. He was scapegoated and hung out to dry for Abu Ghraib by an Administration and military command who were too cowardly to directly place the blame where it belonged.
There was a general in direct command of Abu Ghraib, and of the entire military prison system in Iraq. HER name was General Janice Karpinski. She immediately "lawyered-up" and ran for cover, and the military brass and the Bush Administration didn't have the courage and integrity to hold her accountable because she was a woman.
This in no way excuses General Sanchez's other debatable shortcomings as a commander, but publicly hanging him for Abu Ghraib, prosecuting and imprisoning the enlisted personnel involved, and letting Karpinski effectively skate was simply pure political cowardice. It was a chilling portent of more cowardly and dishonorable command decisions and policies to come, e.g. the Haditha prosecutions et al.
Baloney!
I mean LiteKeeper, if I had an illegal gun in the house and I was told the FBI will be searching the house two months from now, I’d move it!!!!
The above is why we needed to go in.
Our obstacles have been the UN which is mostly populated with dictators who fear their own demise, socialists and communists all of whom want us to be as bad off in our economics, freedoms and lifestyle as they are.
We find out Russia, France and Germany were doing massive back door deals with Saddam regarding mostly the oil in Iraq at a time they are supposed to be under sanctions to do none of that.
Then we want to do things to rectify problems in Iraq, but Russia, France and Germany block everything due to their criminal involvement in Iraq and the oil money.
Now we get to the culture, it’s tribal and IMO probably 90% of Islam is radicalized.
Where the "F" people is the international Islamic fatwa or jihad against radicals and Osama Bin Laden? Muslims didn't do anything to denounce terrorist acts or radical Islam yet at all. Muslims do not have a problem with radical Islam, they seem to embrace it from what we see, especially on their cable show Al Jazerra!
They have a different belief system that seems to deny regular logic and facts don’t matter because they are all extremists.
#1 Seems most of the folks in the Middle East believe Americans and Jews flew the planes into the Twin Towers.
Keep in mind that Osama Bin Laden already has praised in video the bad guys and claimed he basically arranged the whole thing.
(ON ONE END THE MIDDLE EAST KNOWS THIS, AND EQUALLY THEY BELIEVE AT THE SAME TIME IT WAS AMERICANS AND JEWS****MAKES ZERO SENSE.)
#2 They are tribal and have been killing each other off for thousands of years.
The ones that have sex with their goats fight the ones that prefers sodomizing their camels and so forth.
#3 Bordering countries interfere.
#4 Most all the schools in the Middle East teach radical ideology to the kids from the time they can walk or be molested by their relatives.
So to bottle this all up, I think the simple issue is that terrorist in Islam as we think of them probably represents as high as 90% of the population.
We do need to do what we have to do in Afghanistan and Iraq, but we are trying to avoid an all at once world war with all of Islam.
I do think though that since Carter brought back religious clerics to Iran, Islam was radicalized and has been trying to expand around the world in violence.
Fact is IMO all of Islam needs to be reformed or ended.
Even Christianity at one time reflected it’s medieval times and was once more violent, but the culture pacified and became more civilized.
With Islam, you have no advancement since 700AD except that they are sodomizing a different lineage of camels.
I do think eventually there will be a real war where the rest of the non Muslim world will be at war with Islamic believers because they do not let other people have their freedom to live and worship without Islam.
This whole Middle East thing for us has been about a war against radical Islam that was being done on our terms, but as other nations started proxy wars in Iraq, the war has become harder.
Commander Sanchez can’t be so limited as to not get the whole thing, can he?
Sure we want peace in the world, and if Islam was indeed peaceful, not beating up women and non believers, we could live with that.
Once they brought Islam to our doors against our families, IMO “IT’S ON”, either non Muslims win or the radical Muslims win.
I think there will be lots of hits against non-Muslims first till enough is enough, but eventually there will be a full world war over Islam.
I think it is wrong for Commanders to make negative comments regarding ongoing wars (maybe Sanchez wants to be a paid lecturer for lefties or an author who sells books to liberal kooks?), I think there are implications that go on for decades and leaders in the military like this guy seems to show he never had the vision to see past the length of his own arm.
Sanchez should have never opened his mouth, but I think he realized this is a multi-generational war that will out live him and he could not stand to never been heard on the subject in his lifetime. He feels he is THAT important, which is too bad for the troops.
I kind of wonder how many troops Sanchez just killed by encouraging the enemy?
God Bless America, God Bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.
I agree with you! Hooah!
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.