Um Sanchez...are you serious?

Well, Gen. Sanchez let fly last week with a scathing indictment of White House policy in Iraq, claiming its strategy was catastrophically flawed:

In a sweeping indictment of the four-year effort in Iraq, the former top American commander called the Bush administration’s handling of the war incompetent and warned that the United States was “living a nightmare with no end in sight.”

In one of his first major public speeches since leaving the Army in late 2006, retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez blamed the administration for a “catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan” and denounced the current “surge” strategy as a “desperate” move that will not achieve long-term stability.

“After more than fours years of fighting, America continues its desperate struggle in Iraq without any concerted effort to devise a strategy that will achieve victory in that war-torn country or in the greater conflict against extremism,” Mr. Sanchez said, at a gathering here of military reporters and editors.

General Sanchez is the most senior in a string of retired generals to harshly criticize the administration’s conduct of the war. Asked following his remarks why he waited nearly a year after his retirement to outline his views, he responded that that it was not the place of active duty officers to challenge lawful orders from civilian authorities. General Sanchez, who is said to be considering a book, promised further public statements criticizing officials by name.

“There was been a glaring and unfortunate display of incompetent strategic leadership within our national leaders,” he said, adding later in his remarks that civilian officials have been “derelict in their duties” and guilty of a “lust for power.”

The White House had no initial comment. . . .

“National leadership continues to believe that victory can be achieved by military power alone,” he said. “Continued manipulations and adjustments to our military strategy will not achieve victory. The best we can do with this flawed approach is stave off defeat.”

Asked after his remarks what strategy he favored, General Sanchez ticked off a series of steps — from promoting reconciliation among Iraq’s warring sectarian factions to building effective Iraqi army and police units — that closely paralleled the list of tasks frequently cited by the Bush administration.

But he said that the administration had failed to craft a detailed strategy for achieving those steps that went beyond the use of military force.

“The administration, Congress and the entire inter-agency, especially the State Department, must shoulder responsibility for the catastrophic failure, and the American people must hold them accountable,” General Sanchez said.

Is this guy serious!!! If there is one military commander who is responsible for letting Iraq fall apart it is Gen. Sanchez. Under Sanchez, the U.S. Army mounted a reckless policy designed to neutralize enemy force strength and gather intelligence, but in actuality fueled the insurgent ranks by rounding up thousands of Iraqis with the slightest hint of insurgency connections and throwing them in jail. Not only would these procedures destroy the military’s detainee system and lead to Abu Ghraib, but it also humiliated the thousands of innocents who were rounded up with the guilty. This policy of humiliation and eventual abuse was exacerbated by the heavy-handed tactics of the 4th Infantry Division who rounded up thousands of Iraqis and dumped them on the steps of Abu Ghraib, almost 90% of which, had absolutely zero intelligence value.

Now this guy claims he is a victim of bad policy??? Well boo fucking hoo General! Last time I checked you were the military commander in charge of our Iraqi fiasco. So instead of blasting the civilian leadership who were thousands of miles away, why don't you act like a professional and pick up the pieces of your shattered career by doing something positive.