Dougie Feith wrote one. George Tenet wrote his and Rummy did a big ole interview about his time in the Bush Administration with a mens magazine. Now, Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. Forces in Iraq in 2003-2004 has written a book about his part in history. Sanchez’s book, Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story, isn’t a fond walk down memory lane, not by a long shot. Some may say his book is sour grapes. From a RawStory writeup:

Sanchez commanded the US military in Iraq from 2003-2004. The three-star general was relieved of his commander in 2004 following the Abu Ghraib scandal, and in 2005, was told his career was over and he wouldn’t be promoted to a fourth star.

Time has printed a three page excerpt. Was Sanchez a scapegoat for Rummy, and the horrors of Abu-Ghraib among other things? Read the excerpt and make up your own mind. From the Time excerpt:

So what was Rumsfeld doing? Nineteen months earlier, in September 2004, when it was clearly established in the Fay-Jones report that CJTF-7 was never adequately manned, he called me in from Europe and claimed ignorance, “I didn’t know about it,” he said. “How could this happen? Why didn’t you tell somebody about it?”

Now, he had done exactly the same thing, only this time he had prepared a written memorandum documenting his denials. So it was clearly a pattern on the Secretary’s part, and now I recognized it. Bring in the top-level leaders. Profess total ignorance. Ask why he had not been informed. Try to establish that others were screwing things up. Have witnesses in the room to verify his denials. Put it in writing. In essence, Rumsfeld was covering his rear. He was setting up his chain of denials should his actions ever be questioned. And worse yet, in my mind, he was attempting to level all the blame on his generals.

Rummy has feigned ignorance on many of the mistakes made in Iraq, as has Feith and others. It’s not much of a stretch to believe these people who were in charge now blame others lower on the totem pole to cover their own asses. The military follows orders. Orders that come down from above..such as from the Secretary of Defense. I will never buy into Rumfelds bullshit that the screwups in Iraq were because of the mistakes of others, anyone but him. He was at the top of the foodchain and he can not pass the buck.

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