Saturday, October 13, 2007

It Was All Wrong

From the New York Times:

Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who took command of the coalition forces in Iraq in June 2003, now says it was all wrong from the day he took charge. The prosecution of the war was "incompetent" and is now "a nightmare with no end in sight." Now he tells us.

But his own role as commander in Iraq during the Abu Ghraib scandal leaves him vulnerable to criticism that he is shifting the blame from himself to the administration that ultimately replaced him and declined to nominate him for a fourth star, forcing his retirement.

I'd say he is vulnerable to the charge of shifting blame. Now he says he might write a book. The books from the late-to-the-party critics of the war are coming thick and fast. Will he exonerate himself in his book?

General Sanchez has been criticized by some current and retired officers for failing to recognize the growing insurgency in Iraq during his year in command and for failing to put together a plan to unify the disparate military effort, a task that was finally carried out when his successor, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., took over in mid-2004.

That could well be a legitimate criticism. What was your plan, Gen. Sanchez?

"The administration, Congress and the entire inter-agency, especially the State Department, must shoulder responsibility for the catastrophic failure, and the American people must hold them accountable," he said.

And you, Gen. Sanchez. Who will hold you accountable? You could have spoken up in 2003, and you didn't. You said you knew then of the "incompetence" which led us to where we are now, "the nightmare with no end in sight", yet you kept silent.

As I read the article, I found myself growing angrier and angrier. Years after it was plain to him that the whole operation was a terrible mistake and a terrible failure, he lays blame everywhere but on himself. It's true that there's blame enough to go around, but, Gen. Sanchez, you had your chance to speak up, but you didn't. And now it's late - too late for those who were tortured, too late for the dead and wounded - American, coalition, and Iraqi. It's too late for the families and friends of the dead and wounded and tortured, too late for those who have been driven from their homes in Iraq, with more dead and wounded and displaced to come. Shame on you, Gen. Sanchez.

5 comments:

  1. I often wonder if there is *anyone* in the U.S. government who is willing to speak the truth---when it NEEDS to be spoken, not years later?

    We have no leaders anymore. Everyone is too focused on polling numbers and focus groups. There is not a single candidate for president who has the courage to say what s/he really believes.

    And that is because the American sheeple don't demand honesty. In fact, we reward dishonesty. We won't elect someone who speaks the truth because all we really want to hear is a bunch of pretty lies about how we are The Best Nation in the World, and how God loves us the best, and how we can continue our wasteful, consumerist lifestyles indefinitely with no consequences.

    We get the government we deserve. Unfortunately, the rest of the world gets it too....

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  2. We get the government we deserve.

    Doxy, I absolutely agree. Where we are now - we brought this on ourselves. We're not the fine people that we see ourselves to be.

    There were a few truth-tellers at the beginning of the Bush maladministration - Gen. Eric Shinseki, Gen. Anthony Zinni, Richard Clarke, John Diulio, Paul O'Neill, Larry Lindsey - but they were soon booted out. They are heroes in my eyes.

    If Democrats take over, we still won't be the fine people we see ourselves to be. There might me some change for the better, but not a whole hell of a lot.

    Having said that, I will vote for any Democratic candidate who is chosen, before I cast a vote for a Republican. No way, not ever, not in my lifetime will I vote for a Republican.

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  3. Military leaders are starting to say much the same here too.

    And we wonder why the Muslim world, which was merely distainful of us before, now hates us.
    D.P.

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  4. I want truth and I want it now, but I am a bit suspicious of Sanchez. Maybe it is truth wrapped in something else.

    This outrages me. I wanted to blog about it but I couldn't, the words would not come.

    You did it brilliantly Grandmere.

    And the ones you call heroes... I agree.

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  5. What good does it do to say it now?

    Those who spoke the truth early on paid the price and were punished for their truth-telling.

    ReplyDelete

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