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.