Say What?
What Gen. Sanchez said…and what the Washington Post is now admitting
The whole speech is here. A snippet:
It is astounding to me when I hear the vehement disagreement with the military’s forays into information operations that seek to disseminate the truth and inform the Iraqi people in order to counter our enemy’s blatant propaganda. As I assess various media entities, some are unquestionably engaged in political propaganda that is uncontrolled.
With regard to Sanchez’s assessment of the security conditions in Iraq, Victor Davis Hanson, recently back from Iraq, observes:
Gen. Sanchez was recently reported lambasting past and present strategy in Iraq, on grounds, according to Stars and Stripes, that “Such a strategy should involve political reconciliation among Iraqis, building up the Iraqi security forces and getting Iraq’s regional partners.â€
True, but one of the things that strikes a visitor to Iraq is that the officers, major to colonel, and Gen. Petraeus himself reiterate exactly that tripartite approach-that is, they stress reconciliation (Gen. Petraeus has an entire working group formally entitled ‘reconciliation’), training Iraq police and army, and involving neighboring states at the formal diplomatic level and the more informal military liaisons and private investors.
In other words, Gen. Sanchez just summed up the present strategy and effort in Iraq. I’m not suggesting this is new, or that under his tenure we weren’t doing the same, only that his present suggestions of what we should be doing are exactly what we are doing. Continued Here