Charlie Rose - Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez

[unhappycamper]

Run time: 01:52 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBAfJOSVnpg   Posted on YouTube: May 16, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: May 18, 2008 By DU Member: unhappycamper Views on DU: 799

 
Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez was commander of coalition forces in Iraq at the time of the abuses took place at Abu Ghraib. After the scandal broke, Sanchez resigned from the army without a promised promotion. Here is what he told me about his accountability:

[MindMatter]

1. The question is not whether it occurred while he was commander

Obviously that is true. But that, alone, isn't damning. The real questions are what role did he play in setting up the conditions that allowed the abuse, and what role did he play in the cover-up.

Same questions for Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, and anybody else in the chain of command.

This is arguably the turning point on the resistance. Without this blunder, the whole "al Qaeda in Iraq" think may never have taken hold. This scandal may have cost the taxpayers a trillion dollars and thousands of American lives. Yet we have never had even a superficial investigation.

What does it take to get in trouble in this man's army?

[KSinTX]

3. Lately the answer seems to be: Be enlisted

It is stunning the number of enlisted prosecutions that stemmed from Abu Grahib and other high-level military scandals. It left me with the impression that these E-nothing anarchists have turned the chain-of-command on its head and taken over the leadership. This explains the utter shock of this General to learn that he was somehow simply caught in a 'perfect storm' and not ultimately responsible for the fiasco.

Of course he wasn't shy about cashing the big CEO paycheck every month nor accepting the attendant trappings of power. Too often these guys lose sight of the fact that with authority and power in the military comes this little thing called responsibility. Then again ...

Those darn enlisteds must've fooled him. Bet they all told him THEY were really in charge. (Don't think I need a sarcasm smiley here.)

[greiner3]

2. The damn military;

And their freaking promotions! :cry: