Stinging Indictment

Daniel Henninger went beyond the media's delivered wisdom about what General Ricardo Sanchez had to say about the Iraq war over the weekend. Instead of just listening to the media spin the gatekeepers indulge in on a regular basis, he looked at the whole transcript. The conventional story line was that Sanchez had called the war a "nightmare". That was pretty much the entire story. But Sanchez had a good deal more to say:

• The media. "It seems that as long as you get a front-page story there is little or no regard for the 'collateral damage' you will cause. Personal reputations have no value and you report with total impunity and are rarely held accountable for unethical conduct. . . . You assume that you are correct and on the moral high ground."

"The speculative and often uninformed initial reporting that characterizes our media appears to be rapidly becoming the standard of the industry." "Tactically insignificant events have become strategic defeats." And: "The death knell of your ethics has been enabled by your parent organizations who have chosen to align themselves with political agendas. What is clear to me is that you are perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that is destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war."

• The Bush administration. "When a nation goes to war it must bring to bear all elements of power in order to win. . . . [This] administration has failed to employ and synchronize its political, economic and military power . . . and they have definitely not communicated that reality to the American people."

• Congress and politics. "Since 2003, the politics of war have been characterized by partisanship as the Republican and Democratic parties struggled for power in Washington. . . . National efforts to date have been corrupted by partisan politics that have prevented us from devising effective, executable, supportable solutions. These partisan struggles have led to political decisions that endangered the lives of our sons and daughters on the battlefield. The unmistakable message was that political power had greater priority than our national security objectives."

• The bureaucracies. Gen. Sanchez argues that "unity of effort" was hampered by the absence of any coordinated authority over the war effort of the bureaucracies: "The Administration, Congress and the entire interagency, especially the Department of State, must shoulder the responsibility for this catastrophic failure."

The partisan sniping began before the troops set foot in Iraq and has not let up since. The media also downplayed the fact that Sanchez does not see any way to leave Iraq and that we have no choice but to stay. But Sanchez did not just damn the administration - he denounced the media, Congress and the bureaucracy just as much. The undermining of civilian support has had many contributing groups. Henninger points out that a lot of insiders are almost immune to the effects of these corrosive activities. The public at large is not.

And that is a problem for America going forward.

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  By Mwalimu Daudi, Thursday, 18 October , 2007 @ 8:43 am

  “When a nation goes to war it must bring to bear all elements of power in order to win. . . . [This] administration has failed to employ and synchronize its political, economic and military power . . . and they have definitely not communicated that reality to the American people.”

  Sad but true. While I believe that going to war in Iraq was the right thing to do, the Bush administration has pretty much abandoned the political field to Democrats and the MSM.

  In 2008 I am looking for a candidate that is not only willing to win the war in Iraq, but is not afraid to take on Democrats and the MSM.

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  By Anthony (Los Angeles), Thursday, 18 October , 2007 @ 9:39 am

  One disagreement I have with General Sanchez is that he’s been out of Iraq since 2004, and his comments didn’t seem to acknowledge the vast changes that have taken pace since Petraeus assumed command. Also, McCain was stinging in his rebuke of Sanchez, since the general had had plenty of opportunities to voice his concerns before the Senate Armed Services Committee, but always then supported the Administration strategy.

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  By Gaius, Thursday, 18 October , 2007 @ 9:43 am

  I’m less concerned with his criticism of the military than I am with the distorted reporting, frankly.

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  By Neo, Thursday, 18 October , 2007 @ 12:47 pm

  The conventional story line was that Sanchez had called the war a “nightmare”.

  The truth is that General Sanchez’s nightmare comment hasn’t directly linked to the . Rather the nightmare was one of incompetent strategic leadership that includes Capitol Hill.

  There has been a glaring, unfortunate, display of incompetent strategic leadership within our national leaders. As a Japanese proverb says, “action without vision is a nightmare” there is no question that America is living A nightmare with no end in sight.
  Since 2003, the politics of war have been characterized by partisanship as the republican and democratic parties struggled for power in washington. National efforts to date have been corrupted by partisan politics that have prevented us from devising effective, executable, supportable solutions. At times, these partisan struggles have led to political decisions that endangered the lives of our sons and daughters on the battlefield. The unmistakable message was that political power had greater priority than our national security objectives. Overcoming this strategic failure is the first step toward achieving victory in Iraq - without bipartisan cooperation we are doomed to fail. There is nothing going on today in Washington that would give us hope.
  - General Sanchez

  This is a nightmare that is going on today in Washington.

  Funny how the AP made it sound different.

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