From: Rich Gauszka 


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C06%5C04%5Cstory_4-6-2007_p
g7_3



SAN ANTONIO: The man who led coalition forces in Iraq during the first year
of the occupation says the US can forget about winning the war.

“I think if we do the right things politically and economically with the
right Iraqi leadership we could still salvage at least a stalemate, if you
will — not a stalemate but at least stave off defeat,” retired Army
Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez said in an interview.

Sanchez, in his first interview since he retired last year, is the
highest-ranking former military leader yet to suggest the Bush
administration fell short in Iraq. “I am absolutely convinced that America
has a crisis in leadership at this time,” Sanchez said after a recent
speech in San Antonio, Texas.

“We’ve got to do whatever we can to help the next generation of leaders do
better than we have done over the past five years, better than what this
cohort of political and military leaders have done,” adding that he was
“referring to our national political leadership in its entirety” - not just
President George W Bush.

Sanchez called the situation in Iraq bleak and blamed it on “the abysmal
performance in the early stages and the transition of sovereignty”. He
included himself among those who erred in Iraq’s crucial first year after
Saddam.

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