This is what we should be talking about today.
From the LA Times, we learn that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, one of those responsible for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, is set to be promoted after the election.
Yes, you read that right. Promoted. More after the break.
The Pentagon plans to promote Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former head of military operations in Iraq, risking a confrontation with members of Congress because of the prisoner abuses that occurred during his tenure.
Senior Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have privately told colleagues they are determined to pin a fourth star on Sanchez, two senior defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this week.
Rumsfeld and others recognize that Sanchez remains politically "radioactive," in the words of a third senior defense official, and would wait until after the Nov. 2 presidential election and investigations of the Abu Ghraib scandal have faded before putting his name forward.
Top Pentagon strategists do not have a specific four-star job in mind for Sanchez, and the officials conceded that the appointment would probably not occur if Bush were defeated in his reelection bid by Democratic rival Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who has made his criticism of the conduct in the war a centerpiece of his campaign.
Even Cato thinks this is a horrible idea.
"
It'll just be one more thumb in the eye of the Iraqis and the Arab world," said Charles V. Pena, director of defense policy studies at the Cato Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. "If Sanchez gets another star, it's just more evidence that we're not trying to deal with the hearts and mind issues inside Iraq or the larger Islamic world."
The general personally approved some of the controversial interrogation tactics that have been criticized as abusive to prisoners, according to classified portions of a recent report to Congress by Army Maj. Gen. George R. Fay, obtained by The Times. A year ago, Sanchez changed the interrogation policy three times in less than 30 days, confusing interrogators as to what was permissible, Fay wrote.
Fay said Sanchez adapted interrogation rules from those at Guantanamo where, unlike in Iraq, the administration did not grant detainees the rights of prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.
Sanchez "authorized the use of techniques that were contrary to both U.S. military manuals and international law," Leahy said in an Oct. 1 statement. "Given this incredible overstepping of bounds, I find it incredible that the reports generated thus far have not recommended punishment of any kind for high-level officials."
We need to raise serious alarm bells, folks. This is further proof, along with Bush's lack of concern for Osama Bin Laden, that this administration doesn't care about winning the war on terror.