More On General Sanchez

(Posting will be sporadic to non-existent tomorrow, by the way.)

I expressed my appreciation to retired Gen. Ricardo Sanchez a couple of days ago here for quite correctly calling the Iraq war “a nightmare with no end in sight,” and Prof. Marcus quite rightly pointed out that Sanchez perjured himself before the Senate Armed Services Committee in May 2004.

And as I checked a bit more on Sanchez during the period when he led the ground forces in Iraq (referencing “State of Denial” by Bob Woodward again), I came across the following:

During a White House briefing in January 2004 with Rummy, the former “Secretary Of Defense We Had” noted an “incident” of prisoner abuse by Army military police at Abu Ghraib; on January 16th, Gen. Sanchez put out a press release announcing an investigation of “detainee abuse at a coalition forces facility,” noting that “(release of) specific details could hinder the investigation.”

Sanchez “did not communicate effectively enough” with division commanders in Iraq, as recalled by Woodward, and during that time, Sanchez wasn’t communicating at all with CPA “viceroy” Paul Bremer (hard to pick a bad guy between the two, though – Woodward made reference to Bremer’s “patronizing elitism” towards Sanchez).

Sanchez was a junior three-star general, the ground commander who had replaced General David D. McKiernan as commander of Allied ground forces in Iraq, given a huge responsibility for his rank (to be fair), and he communicated to intelligence official Frank Miller (here) that he had trouble getting the money for reconstruction Congress had authorized.

However, in addition to attacking the media, Sanchez also called the ACLU “a bunch of sensationalist liars” for drawing attention to the Abu Ghraib scandal, and called himself “a casualty of the Abu Ghraib scandal” at the time of his retirement.

So yes, Sanchez has much to answer for, and it’s likely that his recent statements are more “CYA” as Iraq continues to disintegrate, feeling pity for himself above all else. But as I said, though he is an imperfect messenger, I think he deserves some credit for telling the truth.

Update: Even though Kagro X gives Sanchez another pass here, his other points are absolutely dead-on.

Update 10/16: If I were Gen. Sanchez, I would worry if I found common cause, so to speak, with someone like O'Reilly (here).