I like hos anology of the modern media's personality disorders....like having to destroy people or things as an act of self worth and personal empowerment.

Great stuff...the media gets off too light, far as I'm concerned most corporate media zealots are worse than the politicians they croak about.

Bourque is highlighting Sanchez with a story about how America is in a nightmare in Iraq and the present troop surge is only prolonging eventual defeat. You can bet that move-on is about to start a new ad campaign with Sanchez's mug in it.

Incompetent Whitehouse leadership and medacious media, talking points for everyone.

I agree with both of them.

Gray - to be fair, the General lays the blame not only on the White House but also on Congress as a whole. He spoke about partisan politics and the quest for power by both political parties which has undermined policy and what is needed to move forward in Iraq. In other words it ain't just about GWB.

grey: I agree with you, a reoccurring theme in this conflict has been retiring military brass complaining about the political micro management of operations and the stupid decisions made.

It is interesting we didn't hear this comment, regarding our media, on CNN. I saw something entirely different. I wonder why?

Bob if you're saying the democrats in the US have been spineless and disorganized, you'll get no argument from me.

But - to be fair - Bush has had a rubber stamp GOP congressional majority for most of his administration's tenure.

When I saw the Drudge Report banner "Ex-General Drops Bomb" I immediately assumed some ex-military guy pulled a John Kerry in the hopes of getting a nice juicy treat from the Democrats. Turns out Sanchez isn't a Democrat sock puppet after all, they just flat out lied about what he said.

Nice to see the US military leadership showing some steel to these slimy MSM creatures. Funny how I come to hear the truth of the matter at Small Dead Animals and not anywhere else. Good on ya Kate.

On the dark side of this equation we have Turkey gearing up for a fight with the Kurds in Northern Iraq. Because of the flat-out LYING by the MSM, I pretty much have no idea why Turkey would feel the need to do that. Is it an upsurge of Islamofasist nuttery in Turkey, have the Kurds become a terrorist outfit, has the USA screwed up in some way?

There's no way to tell. That to me is a pretty dangerous gap in news coverage, in this supposedly free country. There's a shootin' war about to pop and I don't even know who the bad guys are.

The really scarry thing about all these ex military making stmts is. If that is what they think and feel, how good were they at their jobs. Did they takes actions and make decisions to undermine the troops and Country they were supposed to be defending. Wesley Clark, former head of NATO comes to mind.

Mary

Or maybe, just maybe, the whitehouse has been incompetent. Or are all those generals disloyal and incompetent?

Recall what Rumsfield did to Shinseki when he got informaton he didn't like.

...don't even have to go as far as Iraq, remember Katrina?

Both parties/sides are just as guilty of powerlust.

Umm, methinks that old generals like old soldiers should simply fade away .

I don't give a rat's ass what Sanchez says NOW. He was the go-to-guy in Iraq in 2003-2004 when the groundwork for the disasters of 2005-2006 was laid. On his watch.

He began screwing up the job. A process that was completed by his successors until the advent of a DECENT counter-insurgency strategy by Petraeus. He was paid to do something and he failed miserably. That is the real bottom line here. Not his assignment of blame to just about everyone else. Even the accursed media who deserve every bit of calumny they can amass.

If he wants to write a commentary, perhaps he should start by blaming HIMSELF for being WRONG.

And if he found everyone ELSE so grossly deficient while he was charged with both getting the job done and protecting the lives and health of those he commanded, should he not have mentioned something at the time ? Perhaps even gone so far as to offer his resignation if things did not improve ? You know done SOMETHING to prevent the debacle he describes ?

By his own actions he stands exposed as a careerist bureaucrat. Not unfortunately a rare type in any organization. When a man of vision and personal honour was needed most, we got and are still getting General Sanchez. A master of 20-20 hindsight and the old game of blame everyone else for what he had command of.

He was going to be known for his handling of Abu-Gharib which occurred under his watch. Now he can add this tirade to his resume.

Neither do him much credit. Except among those who have picked the parts of his rant that agree with their personal narratives.

"I am convinced that the best service a retired general can perform is to turn in his tongue along with his suit and to mothball his opinions." ---- Omar Bradley

All Sanchez has done is verify the truth of General Bradley's observation.

Dougf, I agree with your assessment. He seems to be exacting revenge for his treatment at the hands of the Executive, Congress and the media. He didn't do a very effective job. OTOH, he was given a difficult task; but, I take with a grain of salt venting from a failed commander with a personal grudge against everyone.

Journalists are unskilled, no talent, lazy, attention craving scumbags who only report stories and facts that they believe will sway public opinion in a direction that they want.

Learn an actual SKILL and get REAL jobs losers.

"Bourque is highlighting Sanchez with a story about how America is in a nightmare in Iraq and the present troop surge is only prolonging eventual defeat. You can bet that move-on is about to start a new ad campaign with Sanchez's mug in it." (a different bob, 10:08 AM).

You've got it, bob. That said, we all know what blogs have done to the global warming/cooling/climate-change 'debate'. That's why, in the end, it won't really matter what opinion and/or pet poodle the MSM adopts; the truth WILL come out on the internet, since more and more people are dumping TV news and newspapers as their source of, ahhhh, er,...'information'...

See "Believe it or not" posted above this story by Kate at 10:41 AM.

Case closed? Yep, sure does seem like it.

nice quote from bradley, dougf! maybe if that rant came from someone that had benefitted from the media's glare, it would come across as more than just moaning.

I'm reading Sun Tzu's Art of War.
Let me put it this way: if you still feel that a good outcome is possible, best not read this ancient masterpiece yet.

I'm with Hugh Fitzgerad at jihadwatch: if necessary bomb the sh*t out of them from a very high height, but for g-d sake don't invade and occupy a muslim state. It feeds into their fevered paranoia that the west is out for oil and to destroy Islam.

Really no surprise the MSM would not report criticism of itself.

I am yet to read the full report. I heard sanchez's commetns on teh CBC (puke, splutter). This is something the CBC did not report. I look forward to see what else.

One of the first thing you fascists do is undermine the legitimacy of a free press and free debate.

Journalists can dish out criticism but are the most defensive when on the receiving end.

No one worst than a journalist scourned!!

Give your head a shake Lloyd. A free press would report the WHOLE story. It took this "Fascist" to accomplish that.

I think Sanchez might have been venting specifically about Washington Post Pentagon reporter Thomas Ricks. Ricks wrote the book "Fiasco" which deals largely with the early years of the Iraq war. In it, he singles out Sanchez for particularly harsh treatment.

Sanchez isn't the only one

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20070923-9999-1n23generals.html

Just curious guys:

How does the MSM not reporting Sanchez's comments and this blog noticing considered fascism?

Fascists, like the MSM and in fact the entire secular progressive/utopian movements have little patience for the concept of responsibility for their own actions.

It's always somebody else's fault. Left-wing fascists, including Lloyd, draw power by pretenting to be smarter that others and victims at the same time.

Example: George Bush is dumb and he stole the 2000 election. Still, in 2004, the lefties could not outsmart somebody they considered dumb.

Who's the real dummies?

You people like to turn down the rhetoric, please? And stop feeding the trolls. It only creates twice as many posts for me to delete.

dougf: "He began screwing up the job. A process that was completed by his successors until the advent of a DECENT counter-insurgency strategy by Petraeus. He was paid to do something and he failed miserably."

One must also remember that 20/20 hindsight in assessing the performance of someone who was there and did the best job possible under the circumstances is seldom valid. Gen. Bernard Montgomery was a hero who got the supplies, equiptment and men he needed. The Generals before him who did a masterful job in the desert with comparitively little resources are forgotten. These Generals were replaced when the High Command realized that their failure was due to poor support and high expectations perhaps to prevent any focus of blame where it belonged. Montgomery was a plodder who would not move until victory was certain.
Petraeus like Monty, got the men he needed for the surge when the time was right.

AN ARAB PROVERB STATES - "Four things come not back: the spoken word, the spent arrow, the past, the neglected opportunity."

600,000 things come not back: the lives of Iraqi civilians dead as a result of the illegal war of aggression launched by the United States in 2003.

This hypocrite Sanchez is among the very last people who should be lecturing others about their departure from ethical standards.

Good grief.

I CAN"T TAKE PEOPLE WHO USE ALL CAPS SERIOUSLY. SERIOUSLY.

According to the Main Stream media, what's the kill ratio? Coalition/American versus Taliban.

From the broadcasts, you'd think it was 300:1 . When it appears to bethe OTHER way around.

.....Small detail I know....

"On the dark side of this equation we have Turkey gearing up for a fight with the Kurds in Northern Iraq. Because of the flat-out LYING by the MSM, I pretty much have no idea why Turkey would feel the need to do that."

28 Turkish soldiers have been killed in recent weeks by the PKK operating in Iraqi Kurdistan. There aren't too many countries that would take that lying down.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,,2189466,00.html

stephen, what a crock. did a journalists give you that info? you can't fight a war without killing those around you. 600k ha.

One must also remember that 20/20 hindsight in assessing the performance of someone who was there and did the best job possible under the circumstances is seldom valid.--gunney99

Feel more than free to correct me on this but was it not Sanchez who changed the modus operandi in Mosul when Petraeus was originally assigned there ?
My understanding is that Sanchez did not agree that the US forces should be 'out and about' in smaller bases interacting closely with the population, but rather assigned to 'defensible' bases from whence they would sortie out as desired. Basically a 'death from above' strategy.

I don't think that Sanchez did a good job in Iraq. And he can't blame lack of resources as a reason. He should have asked for what he needed. But he did not. And he probably did not need more resources. He needed 'different' resources and a 'better' plan. I grant you he had a 'hard row to hoe' but he didn't even try to use the correct implements, IMO.

And I am not willing to cut him any slack on this. He is the one who is NOW shooting off his mouth blaming everyone else but himself for the failures. He placed himself in the line of fire voluntarily and is completely deserving of all the incoming he receives.

He should simply have STFU'D as Bradley advised. He is the one engaged in 20-20 revisionism. Not I.
I am simply pointing out the fact that under his watch Iraq went to hell. He was the GENERAL. He was in charge. He failed. He should carry the can.

Period.

dougf at October 14, 2007 1:17 PM....
Bang on .... that's a one shot nail strike!

Nevertheless ..... what was said by Sanchez and what was reported are notably different ...... more blatant spinning by the leftstream media.

Tara Nelson introduced a report by a Global reporter on Global National News that did a similar hatchet job on this speech by Sanchez. The report had one or two actual snippets of Sanchez quotes, a whole lot of fluff about the failure in Iraq and nary a mention of any of the criticisms of the media Sanchez laid out.

Has the MSM not figured out yet that we are on to them? Too bad -- I had thought Global was better balanced than this, but it would appear not.