General Ricardo Sanchez's Book Slams Bush, Iraq Handling

The Washington Post points out that in the hubbub of the McClellan book, another scathing memoir has come out exposing the truth behind Iraq.

Getting lost in the media furor over McClellan's memoir is the new autobiography of retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the onetime commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, who is scathing in his assessment that the Bush administration "led America into a strategic blunder of historic proportions."

Among the anecdotes in "Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story" is an arresting portrait of Bush after four contractors were killed in Fallujah in 2004, triggering a fierce U.S. response that was reportedly egged on by the president.

During a videoconference with his national security team and generals, Sanchez writes, Bush launched into what he described as a "confused" pep talk:

"Kick ass!" he quotes the president as saying. "If somebody tries to stop the march to democracy, we will seek them out and kill them! We must be tougher than hell! This Vietnam stuff, this is not even close. It is a mind-set. We can't send that message. It's an excuse to prepare us for withdrawal."

"There is a series of moments and this is one of them. Our will is being tested, but we are resolute. We have a better way. Stay strong! Stay the course! Kill them! Be confident! Prevail! We are going to wipe them out! We are not blinking!"

A White House spokesman had no comment.

Comments

[ThermoChemist]

Time for the obligatory Hitler / Bush comparison (LOL)..? [picture Bush posturing as Hitler speaking at a podium]

Bush:
"Kick ass!" Bush said, according to Sanchez. "If somebody tries to stop the march to democracy, we will seek them out and kill them! We must be tougher than hell! This Vietnam stuff, this is not even close. It is a mind-set. We can't send that message. It's an excuse to prepare us for withdrawal. There is a series of moments and this is one of them. Our will is being tested, but we are resolute. We have a better way. Stay strong! Stay the course! Kill them! Be confident! Prevail! We are going to wipe them out! We are not blinking!"

Hitler (1939):
"¦I am not fear stricken, but I want you to be prepared! I do not tremble at the hour of decision¦ I want to be strong. I want my feet planted strongly in our earth, ready to withstand any onslaught! ¦You will stand before me, behind me and beside me and at my hands, and together, we shall carry our banners to VICTORY!"

Hitler (1944):
"¦ we are fighting a battle of life and death. If our enemies are victorious in this struggle, the German people will be extirpated. The Bolsheviks will butcher millions upon millions of our intellectuals. Those who escape the bullet in the back of the neck will be deported¦"

[Misterjimmy]

So, knowing what he claims to know presently, why did this fellow continue murdering civilians? To hell with him.

[bonanzaman]

When he said "If somebody tries to stop the march to democracy," he let the cat out of the bag. There is no more evil than democracy. It's communism by stealth instead of a violent revolution. So there you are. His vision/mission is to turn us over in indentured servitude to the money masters, the Rothschild cabal and it's one world police state.

[gillyrosh]

Gosh, where was Gen. Sanchez during the 2004 campaign, when his confessions would have mattered.

I am so over all those Johnny-come-latelys beating their breasts about what a bad guy Bush is, after-the-fact and to the tune million dollar book deals.

[bobo209]

WASHINGTON - They're all here - and they're all ready to party. The three United States presidential candidates - John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Madam House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Most US senators and virtually half of the US Congress. Vice President Dick Cheney's wife, Lynne. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. And a host of Jewish and non-Jewish political and academic heavy-hitters among the 7,000 participants.

Such star power wattage, a Washington version of the Oscars, is the stock in trade of AIPAC - the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the crucial player in what is generally known as the Israel lobby and which holds its annual Policy Conference this week in Washington at which most of the heavyweights will deliver lectures.

Few books in recent years have been as explosive or controversial as The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, written by Stephen Walt from Harvard University and John Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago, published in 2007. In it, professors Walt and Mearsheimer argued the case of the Israeli lobby not as "a cabal or conspiracy that 'controls' US foreign policy", but as an extremely powerful interest group made up of Jews and non-Jews, a "loose coalition of individuals and organizations tirelessly working to move US foreign policy in Israel's direction".

[SiberianRat]

There will be not justice in the world until Bush, Cheney, Rice, Pearle, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, and other are in handcuffs in The Hague...

[deke33]

It does seem that all those who backed the Bush/Cheney at the outset, now are publishing books with kernels of truth in them. But most of those books seem to be somewhat selfserving. Doug Feith, "the plan was good, the execution terrible". One wonders if the plan was so good why did our invading troops bivouac at an Iraqi base at Al Aquaa where there were quantities of sophisticated explosives that had been inventoried by the UN arms group, and then not confiscate the explosives and leave the base the next day unguarded. I know, Doug, I know. As Rums said when you preemptively invade a nation "you invade it with the army you got, not the one you want". Perhaps someone ought to define for the brilliant Feith the meaning of preemptive.

[watchingthings]

Ah yes, what a "job well done" fearless leader and the spreader of his form of democracy. Can the world stand....or survive anymore of his kind of leadership?

[ALC]

Powell, Tenant, McClellan; Sanchez's first comments months ago and so many other former administration figures and related types that decide NOW to tell the truth after they've figured out that they and their buddies in the Bush bunch are going down in history as the biggest bunch of crooks, liars and dummies to make it that far up the food chain in this great country. All thanks to 50 million-plus stupid-ass voters most whom are whining to the heavens about the mess we're in today. It's funny but when someone leaves the Bush club or gets fired they then have the balls to tell us the truth, as if we didn't know it anyway, but while they have that good job they lied their asses off to us when telling the truth might've changed a few things. Yep they've got plenty of spine now but back when it would've counted they were all gutless as snails. You can include most of the media in that bunch of brave bastards too. Real patriots!

[DallasNE]

Democracy down the barrel of a gun. What a novel idea. Who's brainchild was that?

Oh, never mind. This is the same guy that attempted to provoke Saddam with a wild scheme to paint American war planes in UN colors and get Saddam to shoot at them, provoking a US attack on Iraq. At at his right hand was John McCain cheering him on. Now how sick is that?

[Ranta]

The commander is a cheerleader. A literal cheerleader (Andover Prep).
What a great country. A cheerleader can become POTUS.
Fight team fight! Fight team fight! Win team win! Win team win!

Picture of our cheerleader in chief
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blbushcheerleader.htm.

[Bobrobert]

Beep

Beep beep

Beep beep beep

Beep beep beep beep

That proves my point.

[teacake]

Why does have to take a book to know Bush is a crook? Aren't there enough evidences to hang the bastard and his co-conspirators?

Look, Bush LIED to wage war for oil and to help his friends (those at Halliburton) to loot our national treasure. Bush RETALIATED those who tried to stop the war and his LIES (Plamegate). Bush VIOLATED human rights. He SPIED and still is spying on the American people - not for national security reasons but to go after his opponents. Bush has DESTROYED the US economy, BROUGHT SHAME to all Americans at home and abroad. The US dollar is SHAMEFULLY WEAK virtually every where on Earth. Thousands of young Americans' lives are destroyed in Bush's war for oil. American people are choked to death with Bush's environmental policies, which allow his cronies to pump more toxic stuff into the air for more profits. Bush's No Child Left Behind is a MISERABLE FAILURE.

Bush is a MISERABLE FAILURE. The day of the Republicans (LOSERS) is over. NO ONE CAN EVER TRUST ANOTHER REPUBLICAN again. John McCain is a classic LOSER. He's too disconnected from reality - just like Bush - to 'govern' his own life, let alone being a leader at any level. Hell has dawn upon the hypocritical conservatives, who have too blind to see the truth and to listen to common sense.

[Call me Sweety]

My opinion pt. 1-- Gen Sanchez is doing the right thing now and he was doing the right thing back then when he disagreed with Bush and his advisors. He was fired and you never heard of him again. Hmmmm I wonder why? You can't judge Sanchez by the lies coming from Bush's camp. Pleaseeeeeeee Unless you were in his shoes at that time..........theres no way any of us could imagine the pressure he was under. He didn't play their game and suffered the consequences. Bush is the Commander in Chief (I say that lightly) and being so gives him the power to say "it's my way or the highway" no matter what.-right or wrong. I'm just glad that people are coming forward now and finally exposing him for exactly what he is. I'm sure there are many more out there who want to tell their stories and hopefully they will get that chance. It' easy for anyone to say - why didn't he do anything about it at the time? If you don't have a military background or have any knowlege of the "chain of command" then you cannot possibly understand why he didn't say or do anything about it at that time. It is unfortunate that nothing was done about this years ago, but the point is......it's being done now. We all have our own opinions and this is mine.

[Call me Sweety]

My opinioin pt.2---------. Ret. Lt. Gen. Sanchez was deep in the war and he knows exactly what was going on over there while Bush and Chaney were filling their pockets, sipping wine, smoking cigars, attending banquets, and taking vacations. All the while our military men and women are fighting and dying and for what? The media to a point has been held prisoner by this administration as well by not being able to show us-the American people the real war going on over in Iraq and Afghanistan. Initially we saw all those flag draped coffins coming home, but that was stopped. Hell I want to see the truth and be told the truth. You can't just hide the war from us and hope were stupid enough to not ask questions. I guess they never thought we'd see or hear of our military coming home with catastrophic injuries both physical and psychological. Many of them will never recover.... then to be put in "hospitals" (I use that term lightly) with deplorable living conditions. Too many of our military personnel returning from the war just to be denied the proper medical care....this is absolutely deplorable- these men and women deserve no less than the best medical attention possible. My own family has a long history of Military service from WW2, Korea, Vietnam(many), Desert Storm to Afghanistan. The point is--It's not too late to stop this.

[rudyacuna]

And there are still Americans like McCain who defend the war which is even more blatantly perverse than the Vietnam War.

[butonelife]

Sounds "disgruntled" to me...like ALL the rest.

[RS]

In the words of the late Desi Arnaz, "Hey Sanchez--you've gotta lotta 'splainin to do!" :-)