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.
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