Today, former commander of US forces in Iraq, General Ricardo Sanchez said:
"There has been a glaring, unfortunate display of incompetent strategic leadership within our national leaders. America continues its desperate struggle in Iraq without any concerted effort to devise a strategy that will achieve 'victory' in that war-torn country or in the greater conflict against extremism."
He called the president's troop-escalation "surge" strategy a "desperate attempt by an administration that has not accepted the political and economic realities of this war."
He also also assailed government officials of being guilty of a “lust for power" and that they would have "faced court martials for dereliction of duty had they been in the military."
"There is no question America is living a nightmare with no end in sight," he said.
Sanchez commanded the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq from June 2003 until July 2004 as the anti-U.S. insurgency took hold.
He aimed his sharpest attacks at the White House National Security Council, headed during his Iraq tenure by now-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "Our National Security Council has been a catastrophic failure."
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7 comments:
Yes, I see the snippets from the article you've selected for your 'balanced take', here (wait, this is your blog, not NIT! balance, hell!)
I'd like to take you directly to the official transcript of Lt. Gen (Ret) Sanchez's speech, from which you might have missed these cuts (sorry, the caps are raw transcript data). Sanchez is browbeating some of the media in attendance for their 'bias' in reporting...
"ALL ARE VICTIMS OF THE MASSIVE AGENDA DRIVEN COMPETITION FOR ECONOMIC OR POLITICAL SUPREMACY. THE DEATH KNELL OF YOUR ETHICS HAS BEEN ENABLED BY YOUR PARENT ORGANIZATIONS WHO HAVE CHOSEN TO ALIGN THEMSELVES WITH POLITICAL AGENDAS. WHAT IS CLEAR TO ME IS THAT YOU ARE PERPETUATING THE CORROSIVE PARTISAN POLITICS THAT IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY AND KILLING OUR SERVICEMEMBERS WHO ARE AT WAR.
"MY ASSESSMENT IS THAT YOUR PROFESSION, TO SOME EXTENT, HAS STRAYED FROM THESE ETHICAL STANDARDS AND ALLOWED EXTERNAL AGENDAS TO MANIPULATE WHAT THE AMERICAN PUBLIC SEES ON TV, WHAT THEY READ IN OUR NEWSPAPERS AND WHAT THEY SEE ON THE WEB. FOR SOME OF YOU, JUST LIKE SOME OF OUR POLITICIANS, THE TRUTH IS OF LITTLE TO NO VALUE IF IT DOES NOT FIT YOUR OWN PRECONCIEVED NOTIONS, BIASES AND AGENDAS."
and
" AMERICA HAS SENT OUR SOLDIERS OFF TO WAR AND THEY MUST BE SUPPORTED AT ALL COSTS UNTIL WE ACHIEVE VICTORY OR UNTIL OUR POLITICAL LEADERS DECIDE TO BRING THEM HOME. OUR POLITICAL AND MILITARY LEADERS OWE THE SOLDIER ON THE BATTLEFIELD THE STRATEGY, THE POLICIES AND THE RESOURCES TO WIN ONCE COMMITTED TO WAR. AMERICA HAS NOT BEEN FULLY COMMITTED TO WIN THIS WAR. AS THE MILITARY COMMANDERS ON THE GROUND HAVE STATED SINCE THE SUMMER OF 2003, THE U.S. MILITARY ALONE CANNOT WIN THIS WAR. AMERICA MUST MOBILIZE THE INTERAGENCY AND THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ELEMENTS OF POWER, WHICH HAVE BEEN ABJECT FAILURES TO DATE, IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE VICTORY. OUR NATION HAS NOT FOCUSED ON THE GREATEST CHALLENGE OF OUR LIFETIME. THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ELEMENTS OF POWER MUST GET BEYOND THE POLITICS TO ENSURE THE SURVIVAL OF AMERICA. PARTISAN POLITICS HAVE HINDERED THIS WAR EFFORT AND AMERICA SHOULD NOT ACCEPT THIS. AMERICA MUST DEMAND A UNIFIED NATIONAL STRATEGY THAT GOES WELL BEYOND PARTISAN POLITICS AND PLACES THE COMMON GOOD ABOVE ALL ELSE. TOO OFTEN OUR POLITICIANS HAVE CHOSEN LOYALTY TO THEIR POLITICAL PARTY ABOVE LOYALTY TO THE CONSTITUTION BECAUSE OF THEIR LUST FOR POWER. OUR POLITICIANS MUST REMEMBER THEIR OATH OF OFFICE AND RECOMMIT THEMSELVES TO SERVING OUR NATION AND NOT THEIR OWN SELF-INTERESTS OR POLITICAL PARTY. THE SECURITY OF AMERICA IS AT STAKE AND WE CAN ACCEPT NOTHING LESS. ANYTHING SHORT OF THIS IS UNQUESTIONABLY DERELICTION OF DUTY."
Seems to me LTG Sanchez (Ret) cuts just about everyone in Washington. Well and good!
Of course. LTG Sanchez (Ret) is far from nuanced. He'll be a darling of the left for awhile, then he'll turn and rip them a new one, and they'll toss him out and look for a new...commodity.
Thanks, I was looking for the transcript. I think the money quote is at the end, it sums up Bush cronyism, war proifteerinhg and cowboy diplomacy in a nutshell. It's exactly what Ron Paul was saying, the war is unconstitutional -
TOO OFTEN OUR POLITICIANS HAVE CHOSEN LOYALTY TO THEIR POLITICAL PARTY ABOVE LOYALTY TO THE CONSTITUTION BECAUSE OF THEIR LUST FOR POWER. OUR POLITICIANS MUST REMEMBER THEIR OATH OF OFFICE AND RECOMMIT THEMSELVES TO SERVING OUR NATION AND NOT THEIR OWN SELF-INTERESTS OR POLITICAL PARTY.
Serr8d,
After reading the transcript, it seems clear that Sanchez is bitter that the press blamed him for Abu Gharaib. That seems to be the motivating factor of his assault on the press.
Bitter, yes, and if the Left seeks to adopt him as a 'pet', then buyer beware.
I like the guy. Speaks his mind, isn't afraid of any 'bad press'. Like, well, George Bush. Or Jeff Gannon...
Speaking of Jeff Gannon...he has a good take on this very issue.
I'm really surprised you'd quote Jeff Gannon. A typical closeted gay republican, worse, a gay escort. ... that is, knoing your aversion to gays.
William:
It appears that I cannot directly address your fellow correspondent here, Mr. S*****, on MCB, unless I use his full unaltered, blognomen--Ms. Badbad Ivy considers it "insulting". Henceforth I guess I will just have to refer to him as S*****, there and well, every place else, too.
Shame on you, William, for not using the entire transcript. It is quite clear from the transcript that the General is upset with the press and with politicians. It is absolutely UNCLEAR that he is saying whether it's the dems or the GOP; whether it's the broadsheets or the tabloid press and whether it's the networks or Murdocable talking heads that he's accusing of all of those things.
I find it endlessly fascinating to see former Bushtools suddenly find their ethics--which must have been
forgotten or misplaced for that period during which they were serving the cause. When is his book coming out?
As far as his being blamed for Abu Ghraib: I believe the peons doing hard time and General Karpinsky are actually the ones who have been most intimately linked with that debacle.
S*****:
Jeff Gannon, journogigolo; are you serious? When is he coming out? For the record, if I had a "special friend" (I think it's you that has made mention of that before; something to do with "Brazil"?) it would not be Mr. GannonGuckert.
democommie
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