Countering claims by the Bush administration that progress is being made, retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, a former top U.S. military commander in Iraq, described the White House strategy as a "nightmare with no end in sight."

Sanchez said that "victory was unachievable."

The former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq offered the harshest critique of the Bush administration's management of the war by any senior former military officer to date. Sanchez labeled U.S. political leaders "incompetent" and "inept," adding they were "derelict in the performance of their duty."

Had they been members of the U.S. military, Sanchez said they would have been court-martialed.

Addressing a group of military correspondents and editors in Arlington, Va., last week, Sanchez said, "There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight."

He blew holes in President Bush's "surge" strategy, the plan that called for dispatching and maintaining some 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq at least until the end of the year, believing the additional troops would help quell the insurgency. While, in principle, the president's plan makes sense -- having more troops to throw into the battle and more troops to secure neighborhoods produces positive results -- this surge comes with certain caveats.

The "surge" will only work as long as the additional forces are maintained in the area of operations. Once a neighborhood is secured and the troops move on to secure another zone, more likely than not, the insurgents will return to the first neighborhood. Unless the U.S. military can maintain forces in sufficient numbers in all neighborhoods, keeping those areas secured remains an impossibility. The U.S. military simply does not have the numbers of boots on the ground needed for such an endeavor. The 160,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines are far too few to control a country the size of Iraq. Deploying more troops is unrealistic given that the United States is fighting another war in Afghanistan and needs to maintain troop levels in other parts of the world's such as South Korea and Europe.

Already declaring the second premature victory, the administration is justifying the withdrawal of about 21,000 combat troops by next summer, saying that the "surge" has been a success. This pullout will bring the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq back to the "pre-surge" levels of around 130,000 American troops.

The numbers game does not seem to impress Sanchez, who said he did not foresee these changes would prove effective or alter anything on the ground.

"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."

Sanchez retired from the U.S. Army in November 2006, after being named commander of coalition forces in June 2003, a position he held for a year. He was in command in Iraq when the scandal on the abuse of Iraqi prisoners detained at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison just outside Baghdad was first revealed.

While still a lieutenant colonel, he served as a battalion commander in Operation Desert Storm in 1990-91, when President George H.W. Bush, the father of the incumbent, put together a wide-ranging international coalition to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. Sanchez successfully led his battalion to the southern port city of Basra without losing any men. Shortly after, he was promoted to colonel and given command of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division. He later served on the staff of the U.S. Southern Command, first as deputy chief, then as director of operations.

In July 2001 Sanchez was promoted to commanding general of V Corps' 1st Armored Division, a position he held for almost two years prior to assuming command of the entire corps in June 2003, when he assumed command of all core mission ground forces in Iraq.

Sanchez was born into a poor family in southern Texas. The army offered him a way out, and he took it. He became the first Hispanic to rise through the ranks of the U.S. military and reach the highest rank ever attained by an Hispanic American In the U.S. Army.

Responding to Sanchez's accusations, the White House referred to statements made by the current U.S. military commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker in which they said the situation was "difficult" but that despite those difficulties there was "gradual improvements."

Obviously coming from a very different perspective, the former general would beg to disagree with his former commander in chief.

"There is nothing going on today in Washington that would give us hope," Sanchez said, writing it off as more political shenanigans being played by Washington politicians. "U.S. political leaders from both parties have been too often consumed by partisan grandstanding and political struggles that have at times endangered the lives of our sons and daughters on the battlefield."

Sanchez did not mince words, accusing the nation's leaders of an "unfortunate display of incompetent strategic leadership."

Sanchez did not limit his criticism to the occupants of the White House. He accused the administration, the Congress and particularly the Department of State, which he said "must shoulder their responsibility for this catastrophic failure, and the American people must hold them accountable."

(Claude Salhani is editor of the Middle East Times.)

(e-mail: [email protected])

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