The White House insisted that progress was being made in Iraq after a former top US commander there assailed its strategy and lamented that the war was “a nightmare with no end in sight.”
Retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez delivered a scathing assessment of the management of the war as he denounced US political leaders as “incompetent,” “inept” and “derelict in the performance of their duty.”
Sounds like me. Sounds like most everyone in the United States – finally.
“Continued manipulations and adjustments to our military strategy will not achieve victory,” he said. “The best we can do with this flawed approach is stave off defeat.”
“The administration, Congress and the entire inter-agency, especially the Department of State, must shoulder the responsibility for this catastrophic failure and the American people must hold them accountable,” he added.
Seems to me we threw out some of the creeps who went along with this disaster, last election. To end Bush’s War.
The goal in 2008 is to throw out the rest of them.
In all fairness it seems that just about everything is a nightmare with no end in sight.
We as the American public have to take some responsibility for our own inaction. We were however led into this quagmire with lies from our own government. These people should not only be charged for treason, but should be tried for war crimes. This might help regain some credibility for the USA. It won’t however bring back the lives that were lost, and the lives that were destroyed by the actions of these idiots.
“The goal in 2008 is to throw out the rest of the cretins” – well, problem is (to cite D.Adams) that the public is strongly entrenched not to elect the wrong lizard… And the lizard we will get, only question is Corporate or the Commie one…
>>BTW, wasn’t this the guy responsible for the Abu Grahib jail?
>>Nice try. Close, but no cigar.
If this was one lonely voice in th wilderness, I’d like you get away with glibly dismissing him like that.
But there are TONS of ex-military, current military and – well — everybody else with common sense who realize that the Iraq war is a gigantic boondoggle that has MADE THINGS WORSE.
http://tinyurl.com/zpygw
http://tinyurl.com/p4j93
… and on and on and on
What a mess.
What a disastrous, horrific, mind bogglingly expense mess. And the conservatives cheered it on, every step of the way
In other countries, at other times, we’d be parading their heads around on pikes. But in America, we can only make sure the conservatives never ever get in power again. (or at least until we’ve paid off the gigantic bills they’ve piled up, which I don’t think will be in my lifetime.)
I like how you skew the point of the speech which was to highlight the relationship of the press and the armed forces during a time of war.
Sanchez said in the speech:
“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 PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS, BIASES AND AGENDAS.”
Continues with:
“IT IS ASTOUNDING TO ME WHEN I HEAR THE VEHEMENT DISAGREEMENT WITH THE MILITARY’S FORAYS INTO INFORMATION OPERATIONS THAT SEEK TO DISSEMINATE THE TRUTH AND INFORM THE IRAQI PEOPLE IN ORDER TO COUNTER OUR ENEMY’S BLATANT PROPAGANDA. AS I ASSESS VARIOUS MEDIA ENTITIES, SOME ARE UNQUESTIONABLY ENGAGED IN POLITICAL PROPAGANDA THAT IS UNCONTROLLED.”
That you Eidard for continuing that proud tradition.
And where was he when he was in charge and could have made a difference?
He didn’t want to risk his retirement so he was just another bobble head in an administration full of bobble heads, nodding “yes sir yes sir” – and keeping quiet.
Coward.
>>And where was he when he was in charge and could have made a difference?
I won’t call him a coward but I agree with your point, generally.
These generals need to stand up and take the heat when they can make a difference. So do people in the administration.
Of course, the Bush administration, FOX and the conservative rank and file will cream the hell out of them and try to destroy them personally and professionally.
But they’d be the kind of heroes American needs right now.
#6, chcknhwk03,
THE TRUTH IS OF LITTLE TO NO VALUE IF IT DOES NOT FIT YOUR OWN PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS, BIASES AND AGENDAS.”
Thank you for posting that bit of wisdom. Now, if only YOU could take it to heart and understand what the gentleman is saying.
Finished basic training yet? Hey, have you figured out what America’s mission in Iraq is yet? Surely your basic training scuttlebutt would have let you in on top secret information.
#9 – What truth? He made an assertion without offering any convincing evidence to support his position.
Overseas militry intervention that is bankrupting our country should not be undertaken without overwhelming support and not maintained without a majority support.
How long has it been since there was majority support?
BushCo incompetent in Nation Building and Dem’s have no backbone.
GOUSA Democracy fails again.
The END will be: November 2008
>>I won’t call him a coward
OK I’ll demote him to Uber hypocrite but thats as low as I’ll go.
“He denounced US political leaders as “incompetent,” “inept” and “derelict in the performance of their duty.”
Is he including himself in this group he is denouncing? He probably sees himself as some kind of hero for speaking up.
He was in a position to know the lies from the truth and still chose to remain silent rather than stand up against something he considered a nightmare?
I would consider that a textbook example of derelict in the performance of duty.
>>>>And where was he when he was in charge and could
>>>>have made a difference?
>
>I won’t call him a coward but I agree with your point, generally.
Just because he wasn’t holding press conferences and having interviews with the New York Times doesn’t mean that he was a coward, a hypocrite, or even a naughty boy.
People who are likely to take an end run around the chain of command, airing their differences with the overlords in public, are unlikely to be attracted to the military in the first place. And they certainly don’t rise to the rank of Lt. General. Who knows what kind of hell the guy was raising behind the scenes, only to be squashed with some ridiculous Dumbyan platitude like “if you don’t waterboard, the terrorists win”?
In any case, here’s a guy who was there, who knows what’s happening, and he’s here to tell ya that the whole thing is one big clusterfuck. Him an many, many others.
How long is it going to be before the slavish adherents of Dumbya’s base recognize the truth, that it IS just one big clusterfuck. We came, we saw, we DID NOT CONQUER. We took a bad situation and made it immeasurably worse.
2008: BRING IT ON!!!
Sanchez looks like he’s gearing up for a run for some sort of political office.
Well it won’t be long until the US dollar is like a Peso.
I believe this is all pre-conceived.
Cheers
#6. wow. just wow. what an amazing 180.
the pro-war camp, with its INNUMERABLE lies about this war now emerges as the champion of TRUTH.
and attacks the people who complain about the propaganda and question whether the propagandists are interested in “disseminating the truth” at all.
just wow.
>>just wow.
Go easy on chknhwk03. He’s tiny. He doesn’t understand.
#19. well, OK … but like many in the reality-based community, I have just had enough.
#18 – Allow me to elaborate, I found it humorous that the main stream media conveniently selected the part of the speech that filled their needs, but left out the scathing assault on the institution as a whole. As far as his historical input, he fails to point out lessons that can be learned and applied to current COIN strategy. For his prognostications, he offers no supporting evidence. For the “truth” anything less than a 200 page book will do little good.
George W. Bush was wrong: This is another Vietnam.
Why is it that no one in the press is asking why this guy was towing the party line when he was in charge. He should be brought back on active duty and court marshaled for dereliction of duty. If these generals would have stood up to Bush and done what was right in the first place, we might not be in this “nightmare”.
Not only was he attacking the media, the nightmare with no end in sight isn’t referring to the Iraq War! He’s complaining about the political bickering back home. Indeed, his plans for Iraq are identical to what’s happening now.
So here we have another example of the media skewing things for propaganda purposes. Perhaps the posters here will consider that when they think about IRaq. Nahhh
>>Indeed, his plans for Iraq are identical to what’s happening now.
Riiiiiiiiiiiight. We ALL agree that precipitous withdrawal from Iraq is going to lead to chaos, but that will differ from what’s happening there now HOW?? And other than imaginary US oil profits and Halliburton stock options, why should we care?
The point is, The Chimperor in Chief fucked up. Big time. Huge. Now the only question is how to best clean up the god-awful mess he’s leaving behind?
Perhaps the 6 people left in the US who support Dumbya’s MISSION will consider that?
Naaaaahhh.
17. “Well it won’t be long until the US dollar is like a Peso.
I believe this is all pre-conceived.”
I agree.
#25 – “Precipitous withdrawal from Iraq is going to lead to chaos…” Why?
>>Why?
I don’t know, because the Chimp says so? After almost 8 years, he’s got to be right about SOMETHING, no?
Are you saying it won’t?
I’m curious to know what you base your opinion on and so far it appears to be not much.
and now the GOP, still fresh from wiping the foam from their mouths about the “General Betrayus” ad, moves in to attack Sanchez:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/14/sanchez.react/index.html
Oh, Republicans, why don’t you support our troops? Why do you hate America?
-bah, if he’s wearing a suit and his lips are moving, chances are good that he’s lies more than tells the truth.
no doubt declaring a war on terror is a pretty self serving and stupid.. but the troops, i’ll always support 100%
#24…MikeN…..actually Mike he was one of the designer’s of the old policy and has said that the *surge* can’t possibly work. Which of course one would expect him to say since the surge was to replace some of that shitty plan that Sanchez is telling us about….the one he helped come up with and obviously couldn’t or wouldn’t impliment when he was the big kahunna.
mxpwr03 is correct about the point of the speech. The speech was mainly a critisism of the media for it’s reporting and how he felt they caused American soldiers to lose their lives. But the speech was also an across the board critisism of Congress, the National Security Agency, Bush, and the media in general. He admitted,(sort of) that he may have made an error or 2….but he was pissed because he felt that his whole military carreer is now looked at through the *tiny*(his word) prisim of Abu Garib, which he called a *minor side show* of the war. Can anyone say…..sour grapes?