That decision set up the United States for a failed first year in Iraq. There is no question about it. And I was supposed to believe that neither the Secretary of Defense nor anybody above him knew anything about it? Impossible! Rumsfeld knew about it. Everybody on the NSC knew about it, including Condoleezza Rice, George Tenet, and Colin Powell. Vice President Cheney knew about it. And President Bush knew about it.
There's not a doubt in my mind that they all embraced this decision to some degree. And if it had not been for the moral courage of Gen. John Abizaid to stand up to them all and reverse Franks's troop drawdown order, there's no telling how much more damage would have been done.
In the meantime, hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars were unnecessarily spent, and worse yet, too many of our most precious military resource, our American soldiers, were unnecessarily wounded, maimed, and killed as a result. In my mind, this action by the Bush administration amounts to gross incompetence and dereliction of duty.
In his new book,Gen.Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. Forces in Iraq in 2003-2004, makes some very enlightening statements about what went on in the early days of the Iraq War. He exposes some damning details about why Iraq became such a failure after the initial battles were over.
Some of you may recognize Gen. Sanchez as the Gen. blamed for Abu Grahib, but his duties in Iraq were much more than just the prison. He was the one left in charge when Gen. Tommy Franks decided to pull back our troops, leaving Sanchez with not enough troops to form a safe occupying force for either our troops or the safety of the Iraqis.
The book," Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story, an account of his life and his service in Iraq.", Has some other points in it about many things we were never told about. The Article is a short one so I'm sure more shall be revealed in the coming days that will surely rock the boat. It's too late to save the lives of the Soldiers already lost and we can only read on with regret that those retired Officers the Pentagon bought and paid for, didn't do the right thing.
Rather than go into all the details, which I'm no expert at I will just direct you to the article and let you read the grizzly details for yourself but before I do I want to leave you with one more quote. The quote shows that Sanchez really did know how to cut his losses at the right time.
Upon returning to Germany, I had some very long discussions with my wife, especially about Rumsfeld's offer of a possible high-paying job in the Department of Defense. "I'm not sure I want to pursue something like that," I said. "But given my reaction to Rumsfeld's memorandum, he now knows that I'm not going to play along. So I don't think he'll pursue it.
"Ricardo, they are just trying to buy you off and keep you silent," said Maria Elena. "I don't think we should mess with them anymore."
My wife had hit the nail right on the head. "I believe you're right," I replied. And sure enough, no one from the Department of Defense ever followed up. So at that point, I closed out all options of doing anything with DoD after retirement.
"How Much Did Rumsfeld Know?
Please read this article and fill in the diary with what details you remember or know more about than I do, in the comment section.