Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
October 15, 2004
Promotion Balloon?

Fay Report on Abu Ghraib (pdf)

b. (U) RESPONSIBILITY ABOVE 205th MI BRIGADE

(c) (U) I find that LTG Sanchez, and his DCG, MG Wojdakowski, failed to ensure proper staff oversight of detention and interrogation operations.

LA Times reports: 4-Star Plans After Abu Ghraib

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.

Schlesinger Report on Abu Ghraib (pdf)

COMMAND RESPONSIBILITIES

Although LTG Sanchez had tasks more urgent than dealing personally with command and resource deficiencies and allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib, he should have ensured his staff dealt with the command and resource problems. He should have ensured that urgent demands were placed for appropriate support and resources through Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC) and CENTCOM to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was responsible for establishing the confused command relationship at the Abu Ghraib prison.

To become 4-star, Sanchez will have to be approved by Congress. That chance is near to zero. So the question is why are anonymous senior defense officials lauching this.

  • Red meat for the base?
  • An attack on Rumsfeld?
  • A smoke screen to something else?
  • A trial balloon to really get a fourth star for Sanchez?

Comments

Power always power w/these ideological fucks, after you have all the money you want next is Power. And I don’t mean LTG Sanchez, so much as I mean the anonymous senior defense officials.
Onward Christian soldiers!

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 15 2004 15:31 utc | 1

Let’s hope it’s a DoD rebellion at work in the leaks. Let’s hope old CRummy’s time is up!

Posted by: jody | Oct 15 2004 15:41 utc | 2

Ohmigawd. I’m thinking how this plays on the world stage.
The Americans torture and abuse prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other locations.
The blame is placed high up the chain of command, on Sanchez among others.
Sanchez gets a promotion and another star.
See what I mean? as in, Publicity So Negative You Need Scientific Notation To Express It On One Page?

Posted by: DeAnander | Oct 15 2004 15:53 utc | 3

Sanchez is not alone limbing the latter.

The Army’s intelligence chief said yesterday that he has “great confidence” in the ability of Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, the highest-ranking intelligence officer tied to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, to lead the Army’s intelligence school.
“In my opinion, she’s a great officer and we ought to put her in command,” Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the Army’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence,

Army Official Backs Ex-Abu Ghraib Officer

Posted by: b | Oct 15 2004 18:56 utc | 4

Sanchez will probably get the star……….
My unit, in Vietnam was involved in a major operation that lasted about a week. During this operation our company commander made many many bad tactical decisions that resulted in unusually high casuality numbers to our side. The co unwittingly led the company into several pre-planned ambushes and rather than retreat and call in air/arty support, he deemed it more necessary to fight through the set up on the ground. The co also initiated unwarranted attacks against civilian(s) targets in the area so as to inflate his enemy k.i.a. numbers to cover the dispraportionate number of causalties that we were taking. Essentially, this guy was totally out of control in every respect, and had to be outranked by the top seargent several times, not a common thing. Soon after this operation was concluded, the co was taken out of the field (the bounty on his head by this time was unmistakable) and received a promotion to the rank of
light colonel.
……………….because, not so secretly, the military loves leadership that will push up against any and all opposition — and will willingly and knowingly violate all known conventions of law and human decency to accomplish the mission — even if such actions result in the ultimate failure of both the spirit and the fact of that mission. He’ll get the star as long as he keeps his mouth shut and the commander in chief is reelected.

Posted by: anna missed | Oct 15 2004 19:13 utc | 5