Why Are Bad Generals Always Democrats?

Democrats continue to hope that Americans in general, and voters specifically, are poorly-read idiots. This past weekend, the Dems had retired Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez give the Democratic Weekly Address. In it, he called for troops to return to the United States quickly, regardless of the situation on the ground.

One problem with Sanchez's credibility, however. He was the commanding General in Iraq during the time the situation there went to hell. Quoting Dick Gephardt, one could say that he was a "miserable failure". He neglected to take the actions necessary to crush the blossoming insurgency in Iraq in 2003-2004. Sanchez didn't develop an effective counterattack to thwart al Qaida's growing presence in Iraq during that time. And he was the commanding General during the Abu Ghraib scandal. While that particular incident was totally blown out of proportion by the Democrats in order for them to score domestic political points against the Bush Administration, I do recall that Sanchez was the target of some of their ire. Odd that after he retired and aligned himself with the Democrats, he's now one of their heroes.

What's more, in another piece by James Taranto in yesterday's Best of the Web, we find out that Sanchez appears to have been one of those Generals who should never have been given such a major wartime command governing Iraq in the first place. Taranto offers up for our perusal a quote from a book written by Tom Ricks, "Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq". As you can tell from the title, Ricks is a military affairs journalist that I consider to be allied with the Democrats, and certainly is no friend of the Administration.

Even so, the methodical Sanchez often appeared overwhelmed by the situation,     with little grasp of the strategic problems he faced. The opinion of many     of his peers was that he was a fine battalion commander who never should have     commanded a division, let alone a corps or a nationwide occupation mission.     "He was in over his head," said Lt. Col. Christopher Holshek, who     served in Iraq in 2003. "He was a fulfillment of the Peter Principle." . . .  

"It was my view after seeing him that Rick Sanchez was exactly in the     wrong place," said Richard Armitage. . . . "And when you     look in retrospect, a lot has improved since Rick went out. . . .     I came away from my first meeting with him saying that this guy didn't get     it."

Democrats choose the oddest bedfellows...