I guess Sanchez forgets that he was the commander of ground troops in Iraq and was personally responsible for a great deal of the policy and tactics we used in Iraq.
Posted on 10/13/2007 9:07:30 AM PDT by cool2007
If the Bush administration gets attacked, the press will report it. But what if someone attacks the press? If the attack goes unreported, did it ever really happen?
Today General Ricardo Sanchez gave a speech to the Military Reporters and Editors' annual conference, in which he criticized just about everyone associated with our effort in Iraq. The Washington Post's headline was typical: "Former Iraq Commander Faults Bush."
Actually, I don't believe Sanchez ever mentioned Bush by name, although, as I say, he was critical of just about everybody. But it would be hard to tell from press accounts of Sanchez's speech that he was mostly critical of...the press. Here is the first half of Sanchez's speech, verbatim:
GOOD AFTERNOON LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
SOME OF YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE THIS BUT I AM GLAD TO BE HERE. WHEN SIG ASKED ME IF I WOULD CONSIDER ADDRESSING YOU THERE WAS NO DOUBT THAT I SHOULD COME INTO THE LION'S DEN. THIS WAS IMPORTANT BECAUSE I HAVE FIRMLY BELIEVED SINCE DESERT SHIELD THAT IT IS NECESSARY FOR THE STRENGTH OF OUR DEMOCRACY THAT THE MILITARY AND THE PRESS CORPS MAINTAIN A STRONG, MUTUALLY RESPECTFUL AND ENABLING RELATIONSHIP. THIS CONTINUES TO BE PROBLEMATIC FOR OUR COUNTRY, ESPECIALLY DURING TIMES OF WAR. ONE OF THE GREATEST MILITARY CORRESPONDENTS OF OUR TIME, JOE GALLOWAY, MADE ME A BELIEVER WHEN HE JOINED THE 24TH INFANTRY DIVISION DURING DESERT STORM.
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
...but he’s right-on with regard to Big Media reporting.
A small correction - Sanchez criticized just about everyone except for himself.
We are the watchdogs of the “watchdogs” and I don’t like what I see.
The Army’s immediate shift of focus to “Force Protection” in Iraq was the single most significant mistake the US government made.
The General is ruminating about 2004 mistakes...so what. Let him. It’s 2007 now and he needs to get his head out of his arse and get back in.
I don’t know about that. Many believe that the great mistake we made in Vietnam was not moving earlier to help ARVN become self-sufficient. Our people in charge of Iraq didn’t want to repeat that Vietnam-era mistake so they pushed hard for the Iraqi forces to become self-sufficient as early as possible. If you read General Petraeus’ comments on the subject, he says that that strategy was working pretty well until the bombing of the Golden Mosque in 2006.
Yes and oddly enough, if you watched the timing of all the reports, the bombing of the Mosque and the coinciding over-the-top brutality inflicted on the Iraqi population was also pivotal in turning many against AQ.
The surge helped the inevitable along.
And that is what the insurgency has been all about. The conceit by the Sunnis that if they just hung on long enough, they could outlast us and then go back to dominating the Shiites the way they once had. The work of the Shiite death squads in 2006 finally brought home to the Sunnis the fact that they can never go back to dominating the Shiites. The Shiites are no longer the perpetual victims and the Sunnis know it. That realization on the part of the Sunnis (who make only 15% of Iraq's population) is a large part of the reason why we are seeing the insurgency peter out.
Great points. Maybe we should write the book about it first and get the doe. LOL.
BTTT
I guess Sanchez forgets that he was the commander of ground troops in Iraq and was personally responsible for a great deal of the policy and tactics we used in Iraq.
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