Retired Lieutenant lambasted US political leaders as “incompetent” and “corrupt‏”

Former US commander labels Iraq ‘nightmare with no end’

A former top US military commander in Iraq says that the current White House strategy in Iraq will not achieve victory in the four-and-a-half-year war, which he described as “a nightmare with no end in sight.”

In the bluntest assessment of Iraq by a former senior Pentagon official yet, retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez also lambasted US political leaders as “incompetent”, “corrupted”, “derelict in the performance of their duty” and suggested they would have been court martialled had they been members of the US military.

“There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight,” Lt Gen Sanchez said, addressing a meeting of military correspondents and editors in Arlington, a Virginia suburb of Washington.

He blasted President George W Bush’s “surge” strategy that calls for maintaining more than 160,000 US troops in Iraq until the end of the year, in the hope of reducing sectarian violence and bringing about a modicum of political stability.

The strategy has since been adjusted, with the current plan calling for the withdrawal of about 21,500 combat troops by July to bring the total to the “pre-surge” level of 130,000 servicemen.

But Lt Gen Sanchez said he did not believe in these changes would prove effective.

“Continued manipulations and adjustments to our military strategy will not achieve victory,” he said.

“The best we can do with this flawed approach is stave off defeat.”

- AFP

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