Reply #7: He's the Party Leader right now. Dean likely made the call in concert with a few others. [View All]

[MADem]

Sanchez also had a 'Come To Jesus' moment over all this crap, too. He's the one that said that the situation we are in is a clusterfuck, with no end in sight. BIG PICTURE--he's helpful to getting the DEM perspective on the war out. He's the "Yeah, it IS a fucking quagmire" guy: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/12/AR2007101202459.html


Ex-Commander In Iraq Faults War Strategy
'No End in Sight,' Says Retired General Sanchez

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 13, 2007; Page A01

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, who led U.S. forces in Iraq for a year after the March 2003 invasion, accused the Bush administration yesterday of going to war with a "catastrophically flawed" plan and said the United States is "living a nightmare with no end in sight."

Sanchez also bluntly criticized the current troop increase in Iraq, describing it as "a desperate attempt by the administration that has not accepted the political and economic realities of this war."

"The administration, Congress and the entire interagency, especially the State Department, must shoulder the responsibility for this catastrophic failure, and the American people must hold them accountable," Sanchez told military reporters and editors. "There has been a glaring unfortunate display of incompetent strategic leadership within our national leaders."

Sanchez lashed out specifically at the National Security Council, calling officials there negligent and incompetent, without offering details. He also assailed war policies over the past four years, which he said had stripped senior military officers of responsibility and thus thrust the armed services into an "intractable position" in Iraq.

"The best we can do with this flawed approach is stave off defeat," Sanchez said in a speech to the Military Reporters and Editors' annual conference in Crystal City. "Without bipartisan cooperation, we are destined to fail. There is nothing going on in Washington that would give us hope." .... Although he would not address the Abu Ghraib abuse directly, Sanchez said after his speech that Abu Ghraib was a "difficult issue," and that it is important to generally address the way the United States treats its detainees. He declined to say whether he thinks he was scapegoated by the Army and refused to name senior leaders he believes failed at developing war strategy, saying several times: "More to follow later."