Sanchez: Iraq Strategy Working & the War Was Worth It
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 09:29AM Outspoken critic of the war strategy in Iraq LT GEN (RET) Ricardo Sanchez seems to be softening his rhetoric. In this interview with Wolf Blitzer on Late Edition, he admits the current strategy is the right one and is working and that the war in Iraq was not a mistake.
BLITZER: So is it moving in the right direction right now, U.S. strategy, or the wrong direction?
SANCHEZ: No, absolutely, I think the tremendous successes that Dave (GEN Petraeus) and our great young Americans have achieved is, in fact, allowing us to move in the right direction.
BLITZER: General, looking back, knowing what we know right now and obviously we’re all a lot smarter we are now as opposed to then. Was this war a mistake?
SANCHEZ: Well I think when we look at exactly what the decision elements were that were being considered, the intelligence that we believed in, I don’t know that our nation’s leadership, both military and political, could have made any other decision.
And, in fact, Saddam was a significant threat in the region and we expected that we had some sort of WMD capability that was likely to get in the hands of extremists. So, when you look back, given what we knew then, I don’t believe you can call it a mistake.
This kinder, gentler Sanchez, who commanded the war in 2003 is thought to be a major contributor to what he calls the bungling and mismanagement of the war. He pulled troops off the streets to retreat into the Super FOBs (Forward Operating Bases) making securing the population impossible. This led to increased al-Qaeda activity, a terrorized population too afraid to cooperate with Coalition Forces and a growing insurgency. It’s puzzling that Sanchez has been so critical of a strategy that he was an instrumental part of.
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Reader Comments (21)
Yep. It was totally worth losing 4000+ brave Americans for.....uh....hmmm....wait a minute. What did we gain? Did we gain anything? At all?
Great job, General. It was certainly worth 1 trillion dollars, a broke military, and broke Treasury. Can we invade China now?
How many died in WWII? WWI? I suppose those who have the luxury of living outside a fascist, dictitorial or nazi regime can lament the sacrifices made by other people like U.S. troops. Aside from the obvious political satisfaction, I don't see what legitimate reason you have for criticizing Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Scroll down the main blog entries and look at the enlistment/re-enlistment rates of the U.S. Armed Forces branches. If they sign up to do a job, who are you to oppose their choice? Again, feel free to go back to the mall or the movies. If you turn off your TV this war doesn't affect you at all.
The military isn't broken. All military commanders and experts confirm this. I am an Army wife. I live the military lifestyle. It isn't broken. It makes for schnazzy rhetoric but it isn't true. Only MoveOn.Org types believe the military is broken. Even Obama and Clinton don't talk about a broken military.
The war in Iraq costs less than 1% of the GDP. It costs you nothing. We got a huge stimulus check in our bank account.... as are 10's of millions of Americans. Can a country bankrupt from a war do that? Don't think so.
It's more intellectually honest to just say you oppose the war because you hate Bush or whatever your reasons are rather than using faulty arguments or feigning concern for the troops who are choosing to enlist and re-enlist.
Isn't it funny, Amy, how the number of U.S. casualties is always touted by opponents of our mission, while we NEVER hear of the number of our enemies' casualties?
As for what we have gained, we've gained an ally in the Middle East-- Iraq.
punchy, whay do we gain by the overthrow of any genocidal regime?
So, Punchy, you come here to lecture a military spouse about the cost of war as if we don't know what it is?
Unfortunately, it's not the first time I've seen/heard that. It's an incredibly arrogant attitude to have.
Wow,
Sanchez must have lost MoveOn's talking points memo.
No more Saturday morning Democratic Radio address's for him.
It is good to see him put the mission ahead of any political or personal agendas.
NOT ONLY ARE WE WINNING MILITARILY, WE ARE WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS ALSO.
IT'S NOT HARD TO FIND WHAT AMERICA AND THE WORLD HAS GAINED FROM FREEING 25 MILLION
PEOPLE FROM A GENOCIDAL TERRORIST DICTATOR , JUST LOOK WHERE EVER THE AMERICAN SOLDIER HAS BEEN AND YOU WILL SEE IT.
OUT OF GUANTANAMO AND BITTER TOWARD BIN LADEN
By Faiza Saleh Ambah
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, March 24, 2008; A08
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/23/AR2008032301594.html?nav=rss_worldif
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- A calling to defend fellow Muslims and a bit of aimlessness took Khalid al-Hubayshi to a separatists' training camp in the southern Philippines and to the mountains of Afghanistan, where he interviewed for a job with Osama bin Laden.
Hubayshi, 32, a Saudi native, was among the Arab fighters dug in with bin Laden in the mountains of Tora Bora during the U.S. bombardment of Afghanistan in 2001. He later spent time in the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in a Saudi jail.
He was released in 2006 into a world radically altered by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Muslim fighters were no longer viewed in Arab countries as larger-than-life heroes, and clerics had stopped urging young Muslims to fulfill their religious duties by fighting on behalf of their brethren.
Hubayshi had also changed. He had grown disillusioned with bin Laden, whose initial idealism had turned into terrorism, he said, adding that his family, "not bin Laden," had suffered when he was at Guantanamo.
US ALLIES SEE PROGRESS IN SELLING AL-QAEDA AS AN ENEMY TO THE MUSLIM WORLD
By Walter Pincus
Monday, April 28, 2008; A13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/27/AR2008042701659.html?nav=rss_politics
The top White House terrorism expert thinks some gains are being made in the worldwide public relations battle against al-Qaeda, as the administration and its overseas allies press efforts to show that Osama bin Laden's network is killing Muslim civilians rather than defending its interests.
"More and more Muslim and Arab populations -- [including] clerics and scholars -- are questioning the value of al-Qaeda's program," Juan Carlos Zarate, deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism, said Wednesday at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
AL-QAEDA IS DWINDLING IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ
By David Ignatius
05 May 2008 (The Daily Star)
http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/30676
The most interesting discovery during a visit to Jalalabad, where Osama bin Laden planted his flag in 1996, is that Al-Qaeda seems to have all but disappeared. The group is on the run, too, in Iraq, and that raises some interesting questions about how to pursue this terrorist enemy in the future.
"Al-Qaeda is not a topic of conversation here," says Colonel Mark Johnstone, the deputy commander of Task Force Bayonet, which oversees four provinces surrounding Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. Lieutenant Colonel Pete Benchoff agrees: "We're not seeing a lot of Al-Qaeda fighters. They've shifted here to facilitation and support."
HERE IS A GOOD VIDEO THAT SHOWS THE FREEDOM THAT HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO THE PEOPLE
OF IRAQ BY THE AMERICAN SOLDIER:
After Al-Qa’eda, Life Returns to Hawr Rajab - 03.24.2008
http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2008/03/24/after-al-qaeda-life-returns-to-hawr-rajab/
IRAQ TO HAVE 20,000 NEW TEACHERS
05 May 2008 (AME Info FZ LLC)
http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/30685
The Iraqi Education Minister Khudheia Khuzaai announced that the country would appoint 20,000new teachers this year.
The move, reported by the Al Sabaah newspaper, is part of the larger investment of $5bn into the education sector. 4,000 schools will be built over the next three years.
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY REPLACES CONFLICT IN IRAQ
11 May 2008 (AME Info FZ LLC)
http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/30977
The U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Agribusiness Program, 'Inma,' is leading the way to economic recovery in the city of Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad.
After privatization, the owners added ten product lines to their operations that employed over 1000 Sunni and Shia workers, including up to 200 women.
Engagement with the community began by bringing the various sectarian factions to the table where they all recognized a common goal -- economic development could ensure continued peace.
MUCH GOOD DONE IN IRAQ
Published: April 17, 2004
Where is the other side of the story? I have been back from Iraq only a short while, and I am already agitated by the media reports from American reporters in that country. When I left, Iraqi children were attending school with supplies donated by American schoolchildren. The judicial system was successfully running criminal and civil cases through the courts. The police were patrolling the streets again, businesses were opening, one room stone-hut homes were installing satellite dishes and an overwhelming majority of Iraqis wanted to vote for their leadership.
Yes, there was still fighting with the insurgents and border-crossing radicals, but the positive successes for a brighter future filled with freedom and liberty gave us the motivation and drive to fight. I find it tragic that the death toll this month is so high, but I believe that is because both American soldiers and a larger number of Iraqis are fighting hard for a free Iraqi democracy. We, here at home, need to see what the soldiers and Iraqis are dying for. There are days I wish I were back there, taking part in such an amazing endeavor for the free world. But for now, I will just have to settle for the sad half of the story.
Bryan Catherman
SSG, USAR
Riverton
NOT HARD TO FIND AT ALL IF YOU ARE NOT BLINDED BY YOUR POLITICAL IDEOLOGY.
Bless you Baxter, airforcewife, Karen and robert. Bless you.
Amy,
"If they sign up to do a job, who are you to oppose their choice? Again, feel free to go back to the mall or the movies. If you turn off your TV this war doesn't affect you at all."
. . . . .
This is so true and more the reason why our children should be taught the history of this country and understand the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women in uniform that have brought Freedom to millions.
Not one single bumper sticker or anti-war rally has freed anyone from the murder and destruction of terrorist regimes and dictators. They certainly deserve better than to have their death counts rattled off as liberal talking
points.
We owe our armed forces (and their families)so much and they deserve the best of everything we can provide them whether it be overseas or back home enjoying the Freedoms they have secured for us.
It is easy and deceptively convenient to posit "I was against the invasion of Iraq!" or "I am against THIS war". Taking that position is banal and naive.
When people take that position, ask them to answer the following:
1. What should we have done then with the 90,000 forces already comitted to the region to contain Saddam Hussein?
2. How should we have responded to the 500+ attacks on Coalition Forces in 2002 in the United Nations mandated No Fly Zones?
3. What would your plan have been to enforce UN Resolution 1441 that Saddam defied impudently and irrevocably?
4. What would you do to restrict Saddam from arming terrorists bent on attacking the USA?
5. How would you counteract Iraq's disastrous $20 billion bilking of the UN's Oil for Food program?
There are many more questions, but this will get you started. Saying "I wouldn't have invaded Iraq" is a soft, hollow position that requires more answers than are routinely supplied.
Wow. The Kool-Aid is strong here:
1) Not a single military guy has said the military is broken? Liar:
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,120754,00.html
2) The war costs me NOTHING? Are you f'in kidding me? Because spending 12 billion a month couldn't go to help this:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20436708-643,00.html
Airforce wife -- I never lectured AP about anything. I'm mearly stunned that Generals still think this was a wise, strategic move for the US to enter a country, knock out the infastructure, then pay to have it rebuilt, and lose 4000+ lives in the process.
And spare me the "We took out a crazy foreign leader" crap. If this is the rationale for all future military conflicts, I cant wait to see us invade half of Africa's countries, China, Iran, and North Korea.
Finally, AP, I despise how most of you feel that all non-military types have NO RIGHT to have an opinion on this war. Disgusting. Take your self-righteous bull*** and quit. Military or not, I know a dead solider/patriot when I see him, and how dare you imply that b/c I dont wear a uniform, that I'm some how unable to judge what my country does. What a joke.
Please go back to cheerleading this disaster across the pond, continue to ignore all the soliders dying every month, and instead keep pointing to the Generals who's hindsight may be blinded by the tenuousness of a retirement pension package. Who needs to evaluate the necessity of another wounded patriot when a 3/4-star general says everything's "A-OK"?
Clearly, Punchy = Doofus. Diff names for diff blogs, and the automatic name-filler screwed it up.
I honestly don't know any military people who think non-military people have no right to judge or criticize the war. I can't remember seeing Amy say that, either.
What I DO think is that there is an incredible arrogance in some people who feel the need to lecture families that live the human cost of that war every single day. You know a dead soldier when you've seen one?
Well, I've KNOWN servicemembers who have died. Personally. And I KNOW families of servicemembers who have died. Personally. You don't see a difference there? Because I sure do.
And although my military spouse lifestyle is the reason I met the families I know in that position - it is not the only way to meet them. There are numerous charities and groups devoted to the care of the families of the fallen and the wounded and they desperately need volunteers - civilians, too.
The one thing I would recommend, though, is to keep your political views out of it and view them as people first, and not some kind of political point you want to score. That is utterly revolting.
So, excuse me if my disgust and irritation at being lectured on the body count of a war as if I had NO IDEA came off as some kind of "civilians can't have an opinion" rant. It wasn't. It's a reaction to an awful lot of Americans with no connection to the military using numbers without understanding the people behind it. And you just keep trying to insert yourself into that stereotype, too.
I can honestly tell you that no one understands the human cost of this war more than we do - I've sent my husband off twice. Others have sent their family members off three and four times. My husband has missed birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, my son's first steps, potty training, and other milestones - and I count my blessings every day because he came home.
And he wants to go back, too. And, this might utterly shock you - I support his decision 100%.
Really - can you find something else to lecture us on? I think we've got the perspective on this one down pat.
Oh, please, Doofus! Isn't Powell the guy who swore there were WMD in Iraq? Now you like him? He's retired. The ACTIVE DUTY commanders say we are stretched, not broken. I've watched many military committees with many leaders from each branch and this is the concensus.
But if it is broken, are you willing to step up to the plate and enlist to help out your country?
56 percent of the officers disagree that the war has "broken" the military
I don't have the time now but I've done entries quoting GENs Casey, Petraeus, Odierno, Pace, Sec. Def. Gates saying the Army is stretched thin but not broken.
GEN Casey: Army is not broken
GEN Jack Keane (RET) Former Army Vice Chief of Staff 1999-2003: Army is not broken
The military is being used to do what it is designed to do. That doesn't make it broken. Soldiers are tired, the military is stretched, it is expensive, but perhaps if some of our allies would participate a little more in the war on terror we'd be better off.
If the Army were broken, we wouldn't be able to function. That just isn't the case.
airforcewife, we sacrifice our husbands so these folks can voice their opinions freely. Ironic, isn't it?
Great post, AirForceWife!
And people like me employ several people, pay LOTS of taxes, and pay for your butts to do so! I and others have every right to say whatever we want and for you to say otherwise is nonsense... Enlistment is a choice and is to be respected. But the right to voice an opininion is the very core of what the USA is. Being in the military in no way shape or form gives you or a wife in this case the right to tell us what we can or can't say. RIDICULOUS and AGAIN, your opinion is VERY UNPOPULAR these days... About Iraq, not the troops!! Take off your blinders people...
Amy, what happened to the other 44% of Military Officers?? Do they not count? Or are they just brave enough to step up to the plate... Or are the just not up the chain of commands butt and trying to do a good job for a career?? Give me a break!!!! If it was so GREAT, you would have an overwhelming majority and not numbers of a landslide Presdential election. 56% is a failing grade...............
I think the article stated that 10% of the officers in the poll had been to Iraq or Afghanistan. That's why there's a 44%; they aren't exactly sure of what they're talking about.
In any event, what is your point? You make free-floating statements without making a point. AND DON'T YELL.
Uh, believe it or not WE pay taxes, too. Imagine that. I guess we could reduce the military like Clinton did and have another 9/11.
I know and what's worse is you pay taxes on the money us non-military people have already paid it on... The old double dip of the government... Point being, if you are not an employee of the government... You have every right to voice an opinion (that they don't listen to anyway) as a tax payer because they spend the money they steal out of our checks on ABSOLUTE CRAP! You tend to put the military and their families above and beyond us lowly citizens who want nothing to do with this iraq adventure... When we are what makes debacles of GROSS spending possible. So in REALITY, we have a heck of a lot more to say about it than you do and guess what?? WE DON'T WANT IT NOR DO WE WANT TO PAY FOR IT! We will pay for the mission that was never taken seriously in the first place, AFGHANISTAN!!!!!!!!
Hello??? OSAMA BIN LADEN... Not the wanna be's in Iraq who were not there before we showed up. Question for you? How many suicide bombs went off in iraq before we showed up?? ZERO
Because Saddam would have hung them up to dry and that is the way things are done in the middle east. Look at our "ally" Saudi Arabia. Do you not think they have harsh ways to control their HUGE fundamentalist population???? But it does not matter because I will always be wrong in your eyes.... But I'm not and more agree with me than do with you so it doesn't matter............................................ Fun isn't it?
Sanchez speaks the administrations view saying the war is working. Once our military stabilizes the Islamist national constitution, it should be interesting how cracking the cement and foundation for their religion will happen.
In a worldly sense, Islamists are retarded. They are incapable of creating and understanding, much less appreciating movies such as Shane, The Last Samurai, or Come and See. A dose of worldly reality is exactly what all those people in Islamic lands need to slap them out of their paralyzing Parkinson-like diseased mentality and view of the world. Islam is someday going the way of the dinosaurs, to be categorized with the Mayan and Incan religions in future history books.
Sanchez and that crowd haven't implemented an ideological warfront initiating the inevitable, ... yet. Patience everyone. We must all learn to be patient while things get set up ...