Former Top US Commander In Iraq Calls War "Nightmare With No End In Sight"

New York Times:

In a sweeping indictment of the four-year effort in Iraq, the former top American commander called the Bush administration's handling of the war incompetent and warned that the United States was "living a nightmare with no end in sight."

In one of his first major public speeches since leaving the Army in late 2006, retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez blamed the administration for a "catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan" and denounced the current "surge" strategy as a "desperate" move that will not achieve long-term stability.

"After more than fours years of fighting, 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," Mr. Sanchez said, at a gathering here of military reporters and editors.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[sarcasticennui]

Poor little reesie!

http://www.keyboardwarriors.com/

[JaneC]

reece speaks out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0SHnj0n9Os

[Trittydi]

Dear Lt. Gen. Sanchez,

Thank you for speaking out. You have the heartfelt gratitude of myself and my family.

It takes a Real Man - one personal integrity and a conscience - to speak out against the war criminals running the war and the country.
*

[OldKnute]

Yes, Tritty a REAL MAN!

Guys,,, Guys!

Listen to the General!

See!

Listen to Tritty.

This is what is taking thre Democrats so long.

They need to gather all the evidence AND, AND,,, they need to do it BY THE BOOK and following the LAW.

A true impeachment would take months and months and months.

This way, the truth will be ON FILE as soon as the next election is over and the Justice Department restored we can see it all come out!

You can lie all day, but sooner or later the TRUTH surfaces.

These Neo-Conquerors are NOT Republicans, they are FALSE Republicans, using the party to further their New World Order agenda. Why the heck do you think BUSH and Cheney are trying sooooo hard to bug the Internet and enforce censorship and File Sharing laws.

Oh and like who did they prosecute under the File Sharing law?

Some 13 year old girl. Not the huge companies that were illegally sharing copyright infringement.

They want control, access to e-mails, file sharing, censorship and the ability to regulate free speech, because they KNOW what is coming in 2009.

They have used God, the Church, FEAR, LIES, MORE FEAR to manipulate the American People! Then they tried to pay for it all with Iraqi Oil.

Listen to the General, it was all a huge power grab!

Don’t slam all Republicans!

Slam the Neo-Cons and their hard-line enabling cheerleaders in Congress. Dems and Republicans.

Follow actions, the votes made and the deeds.

Record everything! Document everything.

We can show BIG BROTHER, he has a BILLION little brothers,,,, all WATCHING!

It takes a real man, a BRAVE man to be this honest with us.

All the best

Knute (Neo-LIB)

[Marnie1]

Since this "hero" has like so many military officers shown us he is far more yellow than RW&B, one has to assume his pointless bitch is part of his book promo.

It is the responsibility of a military man to refuse to obey illegal or simply "Bad" orders from a commander, even, and perhaps especially, from a Cheated-In­to-Office-­President who has no creditable military expertise.

[reece5309]

I remember when Bush was asked infront of the media why he ordered invasion of Iraq, his reply was, "Saddam try to kill my father."
LIAR

[JaneC]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCfJBe9nKKQ

[SaviourMachine]

Thank you JaneC !!!

[SaviourMachine]

See reece5309 this is what happens when you don't educate yourself.

You get exposed everytime.

[JaneC]

reece and educate in the same sentence? Now that's funny.

[BWonka]

ReTHUGs do a lot of exposing themselves, right Sen Craig? Rep. Foley?

[BWonka]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZNnQ4i6oJY&mode=related&search=

[SaviourMachine]

God Bless YouTube.

[ConcernAmerican]

When Clinton was in office; Rumsfeld, Bennette (drug czar) wolfowitz and other neocons sent a letter to President Clinton, urging him to invade Iraq. Clinton reply to these neocons that sent him a letter, Saddam Hussein was boxed in, the UN sanction was working. When Bush became President with the biggest block of voters came from the religious right, the ambition of the neocon came into reality. Saddam Hussein had NOTHING to do with 9/11, I remember when Bush was asked infront of the media why he ordered invasion of Iraq, his reply was, "Saddam try to kill my father."

During the party for the press, Bush was the guest of honor, he made a joke about WMD; it was not funny, while he was laughing of his own joke our soldiers in Iraq are dying and getting maimed.

General Sanches ENABLED Bush to propagate his destruction of Iraq and USA to lineup the pockets of his friends and family members. Majority of our soldiers in Iraq came from poor families all over the US.

[JaneC]

That's true. It was a big joke to that twisted pig.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgYGOpYgFnM

[VictorLudorum]

You think General Sanches can meet Ann Coulter and Her Conservative Chicken Hawks.....­. Her Book tReasOn 'R and O where here hands are resting is visible in this magical www.geocities.com/greatglobalisteatglobalist THE GREAT ALMIGHTY

[reece5309]

the former commanders opinion is different from the current commanders opinion

[SaviourMachine]

Enjoy.

http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_10_08/cover.html

[Nyland8]

Yes ... thank you for that.

Bacevich confirms what many here at HuffPo have been saying for a long time. Which is that "success" for the surge equals what amounts to failure. Failure to bring us any closer to bringing our troops home. The math is simple: If 30,000 more troops is actually good, then 300,000 more troops - and more time - and more money, is better. So the "rationale" that somehow this "success" should have led him to conclude that a drawdown of troops might be called for is indeed, totally political. It has no basis in strategic thinking, from any classic military understanding.

It's like saying, if you finally have your enemy on the run, you should stop advancing, let them go and start sending your soldiers home.

Brilliant !! Why didn't Grant use that idea at Appomattox ??

We might all be speaking in a drawl and impregnating our slave women.

8

.

[sarcasticennui]

4th time he posts the same thing.

First time he spells from correctly.

Hell, it will be scrubbed soon enough.

[serialcoma]

We'll have to wait until the current commander retires to know that for certain... I'd say things are trending away from your contention however.

You will never outlive the shame of being bush's stooge.

[lefilmnoir]

Better late than never.

Viva Lt. General Sanchez!

[peacekitten]

since money seems to be all those on the right understand, perhaps they should consider the following:

An opinion from the Indiana University School of Medicine :

How much is a human body worth? When broken down into fluids, tissues and germ fighting our bodies are worth more than $45 million.

This price tag on the human body is based on a survey published in Wired magazine. It found that vital organs are no longer the most valuable body parts. Rather, bone marrow heads the list…priced at $23 million, based on 1,000 grams at $23,000 per gram.
DNA can fetch $9.7 million, while extracting antibodies can bring $7.3 million. A lung is worth $116,400, a kidney $91,400 and a heart $57,000.

Women's eggs are costlier than men's sperm. The survey found that a fertile woman could sell 32 egg cells over eight years for $224,000; however, for a man to earn the same amount, he would have to make 12 sperm donations a month for 20 years.

The prices are based on cost estimates taken from hospitals and insurance companies, and are based on projected prices only in the United States. Of course, the prices also assume that all these substances can be extracted from living tissue for sale.

Although this break down is illegal, unethical and also impossible, you should not feel like a million dollars anymore. You can feel like $45 million, instead!

==========­==========­==========­=

according to icasualties.org, as of today the toll of american dead stands at 3,826. the toll of iraqi dead is estimated to be in excess of one million.

for the american dead alone, that's more than $172 trillion dollars lost.

the estimated return of the total iraqi oil fields is only at around $30 trillion.

if the color of blood is not enough to get the right wing's attention to stop this insanity, perhaps the color of money will instead.

the folly of this war is simply an inescapable fact no matter how it is analyzed any more.

it must end.

[LaFeminazi]

Now you'll have every redneck in the country trying to sell their 'cousins'.


Night kitty.

Night all.

[peacekitten]

LOL!

g'nite beautiful femi.....

;)

[enough]

How much longer must we go? How many more must speak out? How many more must die? How many more lives must be destroyed before anything is done?

[Pat15]

You cant blame Sanchez for this mess. He is commander who is under the civilian leadership & must obey the orders. Atleast, he is telling thetruth to what Iraq has become - an endless miscalculation by the Dumbya...t­he so call Decider... Neocons were so eager to get in including the chickenhawks ... As someone said give a little time & the Swiftboat club will be going after Sanchez too...Thos­e mf Rush, Hannity, Oreily what a bunch of phonies & hypocrites who live in the Fauxnews ...
Nothing will change unless citizens wake up & demontrate & elect competent leaders... Cluless & Lazy citizens will elect Incomptent Leaders & that is what we have in the WH ... Amen

[tdsphil]

He is bitter that he didn't get his fourth star because of Abu Girab. He waited around for a year in Europe after getting back from Iraq in hopes he would get it. Not one of these general officers who has come out against the war every resigned or retired in protest. They, including Shnches, are part of the problem and they are to blame.

[NoContest]

You know what Rush Limberger said about Sanchez, right?

Phony Soldier...­.

Badaawhoop.

!@#$!@#

[KosmicKat]

Does he look like a battle-hardened Aztec Eagle Knight, or does he just look gross?

[coyote4]

.
Don't be like the talking heads: trying to destroy the message by cutting down the messenger.

The man is speaking out now-------­----------­-that is what is important

[PollM]

Cowboys with the lust for power. Shoot first ask question later.

In your opinion do you believe the U.S. will exit Iraq having achieved its goals or failed in its goals? --> http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=698
.

[coyote4]

.
no, it's just cowboys

ignorant, deceptive, chauvinist children playing cowboys

and we voted this asshole administration in TWICE, for god's sake!

And that is the NEWS: they we, as AMERICANS, were derelict in our democratic duties: both by failing to vote and by allowing this farcical fecal matter to completely sully not only the office of the President of the United States of America, but ALL AMERICANS

repent

[JaneC]

It's a "Nightmare with no end in sight" alright. It's just the one the WH monkey and the Lizard King had night after night. It's all turning out just the way they predicted it would before they shrugged off the known consequences and sent our troops over to become victims of their twisted game.

The dream was to destabilize the ME and they were well aware that would be the end result.

So when you see them on television staring into the camera and claiming a win is in the air, understand that the look of sincerity on their faces is just that. Considering their intent, things couldn't be going better, for them anyways.

Scum of the earth they are.