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Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
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JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
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The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
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JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
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Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Nov. 27, 2007 / 17 Kislev 5768

If you want to lose a war, who better to deliver that message than a loser?

By Jack Kelly

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | In his weekly radio address, President Bush gave thanks for American servicemen "who risk their own lives to keep us safe."


Democrats chose retired Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez to deliver a rebuttal. "I saw firsthand the consequences of the administration's failure to devise a strategy for victory in Iraq that employed, in a coordinated manner, the political, economic, diplomatic and military power of the United States. That failure continues today," he said.


LtGen. Sanchez endorsed the Democratic measure pending in Congress to condition continued funding for the war on a timetable for troop withdrawal. "Although we cannot withdraw precipitously from Iraq, we must move rapidly to minimize our force presence," he said.


Martin Peretz of the New Republic suspects Democrats want to withdraw troops from Iraq quickly because they don't want to win there.


"I suspect that so many Democrats are so deeply hostile to a forward foreign policy and their minds so deeply embedded in the notion that you can negotiate successfully with fanatics and tyrants that they wouldn't mind a prophylactic victory for the enemy," he wrote Monday.


If you want to lose a war, who better to deliver that message than a loser? Mr. Sanchez, who commanded U.S. troops in Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004, is a retired three star general instead of a serving four star general chiefly because the Abu Ghraib prison scandal happened on his watch. But that may have been the least of his failings. The year he was in charge was the year the insurgency took root.

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"Fairly or unfairly, Gen. Ricardo Sanchez always will be remembered as America's incompetent field commander in Iraq," wrote counterinsurgency expert "Abu Muqawama" on his blog. ("Abu Muqawama" is Arabic for "father of resistance.") I think much of the criticism of Gen. Sanchez ought to be directed at the more senior leaders in the Army at the time, because the poor man was virtually set up for failure. Not only was he just a three star in what should have been a four star billet, he was a newly minted three star. He had less experience in and knowledge of Iraq than any other general officer who served during the war. It is no reflection on his personal qualities to say that he was an appallingly bad choice. But though Ricardo Sanchez had lots of help in becoming a failure, and lots of company, the fact is that he was a failure, and that most of the responsibility for being a failure rests on the shoulders of...Ricardo Sanchez.


Sanchez implies "that somehow he was a blameless bystander and not the one entrusted with day-to-day operations during the critical year following regime change in Iraq," noted the Small Wars Journal. "It appears that Sanchez did not have a problem with U.S. strategy at that time. Moreover, as the senior commander he had the authority to take measures that could have lessened the impact of a failed or nonexistent strategy had he so desired."


It does seem odd that Democrats would excoriate Gen. David Petraeus, architect of the strategy that has turned things around in Iraq, and embrace Gen. Sanchez, especially since it was Democrats in Congress who led the criticism of him during the Abu Ghraib affair.


But then, Democrats have a history of preferring losers to winners. In 1864, they were sharply critical of Generals Grant and Sherman, who were leading the Union to victory, and nominated as their presidential candidate Gen. George B. McClellan, who Robert E. Lee had beaten like a drum on numerous occasions.


Historian Victor Davis Hanson likens Gen. Sanchez to other "whistleblowers" such as former CIA officer Michael Scheuer and former National Security Council staffer Richard Clarke who were failures at their jobs.


"In all these cases there is a dismal pattern: a mediocre functionary keeps quiet about the mess around him, muddles through, senses that things aren't going right, finds himself on the losing end of political infighting, is ofrced out or quits, seethes that his genius wasn't recognized, takes no responsibility for his own failures, worries that he might be scape-goated, and at last senses that either a New York publisher or the anti-war Left, or both, will be willing to offer him cash or notoriety — but only if he serves their needs by trashing his former colleagues in a manner he never would while on the job," Mr. Hanson said.


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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. Comment by clicking here.

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