Former US commander calls Iraq 'nightmare with no end'

[Zeus]

Former US commander calls Iraq 'nightmare with no end'



Agence France-Presse
Last updated 11:10am (Mla time) 10/13/2007



WASHINGTON--(UPDATE) A former top US military commander in Iraq said Friday that the current White House strategy in Iraq will not achieve victory in the four-and-a-half-year war, which he described as "a nightmare with no end in sight."
In the bluntest assessment of Iraq by a former senior Pentagon official yet, retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez also lambasted US political leaders as "incompetent," "inept," "derelict in the performance of their duty" and suggested they would have been court-martialed had they been members of the US military.
"There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight," said Sanchez, addressing a meeting of military correspondents and editors in Arlington, a Virginia suburb of Washington.
He blasted President George W. Bush's "surge" strategy that calls for maintaining more than 160,000 US troops in Iraq until the end of the year in the hope of reducing sectarian violence and bringing about a modicum of political stability.
The strategy has since been adjusted, with the current plan calling for the withdrawal of about 21,500 combat troops by next July to bring the total to the "pre-surge" level of 130,000 servicemen.
But Sanchez said he did not believe these changes would prove effective.
"Continued manipulations and adjustments to our military strategy will not achieve victory," he said. "The best we can do with this flawed approach is stave off defeat."
Born into a poor family in southern Texas, Sanchez rose through the ranks of the US military to become the highest-ranking Hispanic in the US Army.
In 1991, he served as a battalion commander during Operation Desert Storm, a US-led allied operation to eject Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait.
He became commander of coalition forces in Iraq in June 2003, after the US-led invasion, and served in that capacity for a year.
Sanchez retired from the military in November 2006, part of the fallout from a scandal over abuse of detainees by US military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
Reacting late Friday to Sanchez's comments, the White House evoked a September report to Congress by the current US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker. They painted a difficult situation they said was nevertheless marked by gradual improvements.
"We appreciate his service to the country," White House spokesman Trey Bohn told AFP, of Sanchez. "As General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker have said, there is more work to be done, but progress is being made in Iraq. And that's what we are focused on now."
Sanchez, however, had a starkly different view.
"There is nothing going on today in Washington that would give us hope," he insisted.
He said US political leaders from both parties have been too often consumed by partisan grandstanding and political struggles that, as he put it, at times have "endangered the lives of our sons and daughters on the battlefield."
According to Sanchez, US politicians in both the administration and Congress have too often chosen loyalty to their political party above loyalty to the constitution because of what he called "their lust for power."
"There has been a glaring, unfortunate display of incompetent strategic leadership within our national leaders," the retired general complained. "In my profession, these type of leaders would immediately be relieved or court-martialed."
For all his criticism, Sanchez essentially agreed with President George W. Bush's position that a precipitous US military withdrawal from Iraq would plunge the country and, possibly the whole region, into chaos.
He argued that some level of US military presence in Iraq would be necessary "for the foreseeable future."
But at the same time, he called for a "unified national strategy" in Iraq, without offering any specifics.


Kailan kaya matatapos ang gulo dyan?

[awing]

Sigurado naman walang katapusan ang war sa Iraq. Ng nadakip si Saddam at namatay, everyday is expecting it was the end...pero til now its getting worse and worse. Nagsasayang lang ng pera ang US.!

[uls]

Radical Islamists are winning the war in Iraq.

The richest, most powerful nation in the world, with the most advanced and powerful military force in the world, is losing a war to a group of bearded men armed with rifles and homemade bombs.

[Monseratto]

The war will only end when Iraq is cut up along ethnic lines, which the US is trying to prevent. However the oil that Dubya so craves for is located in a region dominated by Shias, who are the same ethnic line as Iranian mullahs. Though dominant yung Shia sa buong Iraq, walang tiwala si Dubya sa kanila dahil sa influence ng mga brothers nila sa Iran. Iraq has the second biggest known reserve of oil.

Yung pinaka lugi are the Sunnis, who are the same group of Sadam and the Saudis. Walang langis sa lugar nila, at sila yung nangugulo ng madalas. Pero may alliance of convinience ngayon kasama ng mga kano kasi may dati ng distrust sila towards the Iran-Shia group.

May Kurds din sa north, at more or less autonomous state na sila from the rest of Iraq. Mas tahimik din doon at thriving yung economy.

[oldblue]

double post

[empy]

i think it's time. the Iraqi government needs to stand on its own two feet. plus, untold new people hate us because of this occupation.

i still don't think we should leave the Iraqis hanging, so we have to say - complete withdrawal by EOY 2009, and STICK TO THE SCHEDULE. when the Dems take over the White House i think we'll be able to make progress.

[VtEC]

wasted lives = too many
wasted money = billions of dollars
goal = unknown

what the heck is going on with the US?why they cant just leave and let the Iraqis settle their problems. just like what they did in Vietnam.easy, come and go.

[oldblue]

alam ko kasi mayroon ancient entrance dyan sa hollow earth eh kaya talagang pahirapan dyan

[Jun aka Pekto]

wasted lives = too many
wasted money = billions of dollars
goal = unknown

what the heck is going on with the US?why they cant just leave and let the Iraqis settle their problems. just like what they did in Vietnam.easy, come and go.

The Sunnis probably don't want the US to go because they know they're dead once the US leaves.

[creepy]

Kailangan mag-maintain ng US bases sa Iraq!