I always find that you can tell a lot about someone by their actions after they realize they screwed up, especially when it seems like they went against their own principles in doing so.
:(
Printable View
I had held off commenting on the Sanchez threads because of my hard personal opinions on him, but can't resist anymore.
I was in 1AD under Sanchez, and I'll back up RTK an others and confirm that Sanchez's leadership left much to be desired in the eyes of his subordinates. I never saw anything positive come from him on any of my interactions.
My final straw was at the UN Bombing in August 2003 - elements of 1/1 AD and 2ACR had been pulling bodies and doing CASEVAC for 6 hours when he showed up in 140 degree heat. He proceeded to chew out the leaders on site for some minor BS and left the scene. Classic for him - seagull management - fly in, sh*t all over, fly out. I saw it back in Germany too many times to mention. (Fortunately, MG Dempsey (now LTG) was a 180 degree difference for 1AD)
The final straw started when he returned to Germany commanding V Corps and his "I was screwed out of a fourth star" narrative began. It started awhile ago inside of military circles, and only has come public recently. He is the epitome of what LTC Yingling talked about - there is more consequence for a PVT losing a rifle than a LTG losing a war. Yes, he wasn't set up fully for success, but the difference is in those who make their environments work and those who are dominated by their circumstances.
Sorry General, you were in charge, and therefore you are responsible for everything good or bad that occurs in your command. Drilled into me during ROTC, but somewhere he forgot that, as evidenced by his "wasn't me" Abu Gharib reaction (along with BG Kerpinski(sp?)).
Fred Kaplan's column in Slate the other day captures some of it as well.
It doesn't matter to me whether he speaks for the Democrats or Republicans, both positions have some intellectual merit. But his credibility is highly suspect in my eyes given his rant a few weeks ago.
Karpinski...colonel now. And, yes, I think her excuse was pretty much lame as dried pile of dog doo. Regardless of checkered lines of reporting, you know the right and wrong, could have put discipline in place and made sure your butt and those in your command were covered. Further, it may take moral courage to keep asking, but there is nothing else that keeps someone from asking. Of course, maybe she felt put off by Sanchez's command style of "I don't have time to deal with this petty BS". which turned into a giant red target on the army's back. Karpinski was out of her league and then couldn't admit it to herself.
I am also reminded of the generals and a few field grades who were trying hard to back out of the Tillman fiasco. They made a bad call and then tried to cover it, made more bad calls and then tried to cover it. It could have stopped a long time before that. Another big black mark on the army record.
Most of these folks are so focused on their own careers and pain, they lose sight of the big picture.
Actually, the case with Karpinski, was that she would NOT leave the V Corps TOC. She was waaay too busy kissing Sanchez's ass and he was way to busy being flattered with the ass-kissing. Because of that, she had no CLUE what her MPs were doing.
The difference between COL Spain and BG Karpinski were like day and night, respectively.
And, oh yeah, Sanchez didn't have a frickin' CLUE what was going on "on the ground" in Iraq, or an idea of what to do about it. In the words of his "former" battle captain, (I currently work with the guy) "Sanchez was a 'sunshine up', #### down' kind of officer."