General Sanchez and the Blame Game
Time magazine ran an excerpt from ret. Lt. Gen. Sanchez's memoir, Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story.
Quote:
To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I had never seen any approved CENTCOM campaign plan, either conceptual or detailed, for the post�major combat operations phase. When I was on the ground in Iraq and saw what was going on, I assumed they had done zero Phase IV planning. Now, three years later, I was learning for the first time that my assumption was not completely accurate. In fact, CENTCOM had originally called for twelve to eighteen months of Phase IV activity with active troop deployments. But then CENTCOM had completely walked away by simply stating that the war was over and Phase IV was not their job.
That decision set up the United States for a failed first year in Iraq. There is no question about it. And I was supposed to believe that neither the Secretary of Defense nor anybody above him knew anything about it? Impossible! Rumsfeld knew about it. Everybody on the NSC knew about it, including Condoleezza Rice, George Tenet, and Colin Powell. Vice President Cheney knew about it. And President Bush knew about it.
Quote:
In the meantime, hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars were unnecessarily spent, and worse yet, too many of our most precious military resource, our American soldiers, were unnecessarily wounded, maimed, and killed as a result. In my mind, this action by the Bush administration amounts to gross incompetence and dereliction of duty.
Here's the link: http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...te-cnn-partner
Boy, you got that right...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Tom Odom
...that all have at their core a defense for incompetence based on ignorance. They did no wrong because they did not know.
Tom
Unfortunately, it seems to be true -- incompetence due to ignorance, I mean -- what's wrong with that picture??? :mad:
So I'm Trying to Read the Sanchez Book
...or, at least, the OIF parts. So far after about 20 pages, it's worthless. At least Feith sprinkled some new information and important points into the spew of alibis. Sanchez offers an equal dose of alibis without any redeeming insights or information.
Steve, seek help. This masochism
is not good for you... ;)
Not that I'm complaining too loudly, mind you -- you're saving me from having to buy two books and I appreciate that.