Sanchez Delivers Democratic Party Weekly Radio Address

[Rank amateur]

Our Army and Marine Corps are struggling with changing deployment schedules that are disrupting combat readiness training and straining the patience and daily lives of military families. It will take the Army at least a decade to repair the damage done to its full spectrum readiness, which is at its lowest level since the Vietnam War. .

If this is true, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Sanchez saying it.

Had Sanchez recognized the nature of the emerging threat (insurgency) and planned and implemented a theater-wide counterinsurgency campaign with the resources at hand, [during the critical year following regime change in Iraq] we may have avoided some of the difficulties later encountered.

Just my opinion, but I think it’s fair more likely that Sanchez would’ve been fired.


CNN Aired November 17, 2006 - 17:00

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The solution is not military. The solution to that obviously is what Prime Minister Maliki is trying to do and that is a reach out to the Sunni community to attempt to fashion a reconciliation process that will bring together the elements of this country.

Washington Post November 30 2005 Page A18

Last weekend, while other Americans were watching football and eating leftover turkey, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ended the Iraqi insurgency.
It was easy, really: He declared that the insurgents would, henceforth, no longer be called insurgents.

Over the weekend, I thought to myself, 'You know, that gives them a greater legitimacy than they seem to merit,”


Reported everywhere June 20 2005

“The insurgency in Iraq is in the last throes," Vice President Dick Cheney


Christian Science Monitor, June 27, 2005

As part of a public relations campaign leading up to President Bush addressing the nation Tuesday night about the war in Iraq, members of the Bush administration have been trying to downplay the strength of the insurgency in Iraq.

Unless there was some backdoor dialogue occurring that we are not privy too, it appears Sanchez did not have a problem with the U.S. strategy at that time… Bremer and Gen. Sanchez hated each other. They barely talked.

IMO, not talking can be considered possible evidence of a disagreement.

Shifting the primary mission of our troops away from combat will lead to a smaller U.S. military presence, and a greater obligation on the part of the Iraqis to take the lead in solving their country’s problems.

The U.S. now has a proper strategy in place, a COIN strategy that is population-centric unlike earlier enemy-centric strategies that yielded little or no results. Former senior MNF-I COIN adviser Dr. David Kilcullen describes this strategy

If I understand Kilcullen, he says:

1) COIN forces in Iraq don’t need to be American. They can be Iraqi.
2) The only way insurgencies end is with a political agreement amongst all the parties involved.

IMO, Sanchez’s statement is consistent with COIN doctrine.

“Although we cannot withdraw precipitously from Iraq

That’s also consistent with the COIN strategy.

Furthermore, the bill puts America on the path to regaining our moral authority by requiring all government employees to abide by the Army Field Manual on interrogations, which is in compliance with the Geneva Conventions. America must accept nothing less.

That’s consistent with the council’s foremost expert on the subject.

Justifying the use of torture because terrorists are criminal scum and not a conventional enemy only brings us down to their level…… Bluntly put, torture is both morally wrong and operationally ineffective.

Seems to me Sanchez is saying: We should lower our forces quickly, because the military is strained and large numbers of troops are not producing any progress toward the political agreement that is needed.

And the editorial is saying: We should lower our forces slowly, because even though large numbers of troops aren’t producing any political progress, they might.

Though since I don’t want to be accused of misquoting, here re the exact words, edited and slightly out of order.

Sanchez notes, and is correct, that so far there is no evidence that there is movement towards political reconciliation at the national government level….While the jury is still out on the ultimate success of this new strategy … it has provided the Iraqi government a window of opportunity to seek a national reconciliation. .

It’s a pretty minor disagreement except for the fact that Democrats are one side and Republicans on the other.