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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (382964)	5/7/2008 10:22:07 AM
From: SilentZ	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1575765

>You do realize, of course, that soldiers are required not to obey illegal orders? So much for "sheep" ... There's a difference between illegal and wrong. -Z

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (382964)	5/7/2008 12:05:34 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575765

Sanchez Blasts Post-War Actions May 05, 2008 military.com Military.com\|by Bryant Jordan Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the senior commander on the ground in Iraq after the administration announced the end to major hostilities there five years ago, says post-war actions taken by the Bush administration resulted in the wounding and killing of American troops and "amount to gross incompetence and dereliction of duty." Sanchez, in a new book being excerpted by Time magazine, said the Pentagon had but never implemented a 12- to 18-month plan that could have helped stabilize Iraq after Saddam Hussein's forces were defeated. Instead, it buried the plan, officially ended major hostilities, and permitted the Central Command staff that had overseen the war to walk away, he writes in Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story. Sanchez also says in his book that his expected promotion to general went down the tubes over the Abu Ghraib scandal. During a 2006 meeting with then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in Washington, he claims Rumsfeld apologized that the "promotion didn't work out." Although the only people convicted of any offenses connected with the torture and abuse that went on at the Abu Ghraib prison were lower level enlisted people, Sanchez was tainted by the scandal. "We just couldn't make it work politically," he quotes Rumsfeld as saying. "Sending a nomination to the Senate would not be good for you, the Army or the {Defense Department]." But in the Time excerpt, Sanchez mostly recalls learning during the interview with Rumsfeld that the Pentagon boss claimed he had no knowledge that, after combat operations were considered closed, Sanchez was left in charge in Iraq. Sanchez claims Rumsfeld gave him a memo to read that detailed post-combat errors, stating that one of the biggest was ordering the major redeployment of forces out of the country and letting the Central Command and the Coalition Forces Land Component Command leave. Rumsfeld's memo said this left Sanchez in charge of operations with a staff focused on the operational and tactical missions, and without the training to operate at the strategic/operational level. He also said Rumsfeld claimed in the memo to be "dumbfounded" to learn the senior leadership had left Iraq and that he did not know Sanchez was left in charge. Sanchez writes that he challenged Rumsfeld on that claim, saying he couldn't believe the defense secretary wouldn't know that the CentCom and CFLCC heads and staffs had redeployed from Iraq. Rumsfeld remained adamant, however, and then said he would order an investigation into the matter. Sanchez said he learned some time later that an investigation had been completed, but never released because it reflected poorly on the Pentagon's senior leadership and the administration. Sanchez said an official involved in the investigation claimed a post-combat plan that may have helped stabilize Iraq, which was to run between 12 and 18 months, was abandoned. Sanchez said he was surprised because he had never seen any formal plan for post-combat ops in Iraq, and officials had said there was none. "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," he writes. There had been a plane, he writes, but CentCom "had completely walked away by simply stating that the war was over and Phase IV [post-combat operations] was not their job." Meanwhile, he writes, billions of dollars would be spent unnecessarily and American troops would continue to be wounded and killed unnecessarily. "In my mind, this action by the Bush administration amounts to gross incompetence and dereliction of duty. " Sanchez believes now that Rumsfeld hoped to get Sanchez to go along with that scenario to deflect any blame for what happened in Iraq away from himself and the administration. He writes that Rumsfeld, before showing him the memo, suggested during conversation that there would be a senior Defense Department civilian job available for Sanchez after his retirement. © Copyright 2008 Military.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.