By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer
November 21, 2007
WASHINGTON - Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top
commander in Iraq shortly after the fall of Baghdad, said this
week he supports Democratic legislation that calls for most
troops to come home within a year.
His comments come as welcomed ammunition for the Democratic-controlled
Congress in its standoff with the White House on war spending.
This month, the House passed a $50 billion bill that would
pay for combat operations but sets the goal that combat end
by Dec. 15, 2008. The White House threatened to veto the
measure, and Senate Republicans blocked it from passing.
The Pentagon on Tuesday said that as many as 200,000 civilian
employees and contractors will begin receiving layoff warnings
by Christmas unless Congress approves a war spending bill that
President Bush will sign.
"The improvements in security produced by the courage
and blood of our troops have not been matched by a willingness
on the part of Iraqi leaders to make the hard choices necessary
to bring peace to their country," Sanchez said in remarks
to be aired Saturday for the weekly Democratic radio address.
"There is no evidence that the Iraqis will choose to
do so in the near future or that we have an ability to force
that result," he said.
Sanchez added that the House bill "makes the proper preparation
of our deploying troops a priority and requires the type of
shift in their mission that will allow their numbers to be
reduced substantially."
Critical assessments on the war from former Pentagon brass
are nothing new. But Sanchez's newfound alliance with Democrats
is particularly noteworthy because he was directly in charge
of combat operations in Iraq, from 2003 to 2004.
He also is somewhat controversial. The Abu Ghraib prisoner
abuse scandal happened under his watch, and some have pointed
to leadership failures as a contributing factor. While he was
not charged with any misconduct, Sanchez said upon retiring
from the military in November 2006 that his career was a casualty
of Abu Ghraib.
In October, the three-star general told a group of reporters
that the U.S. mission in Iraq was a "nightmare with no
end in sight." He also called Bush's decision to deploy
30,000 extra forces to Iraq earlier this year a "desperate
attempt" to make up for years of misguided policies in
Iraq.
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