Ex-coalition leader says Bush failed to have plan Sanchez: It's time to withdraw troops, let Iraq take responsibility

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez at a 2003 press conference in Baghdad. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez at a 2003 press conference in Baghdad. Photo: MUHAMMED MUHEISEN, Associated Press Photo: MUHAMMED MUHEISEN, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Ex-coalition leader says Bush failed to have plan 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who led coalition forces through the first critical year of Iraq's insurgency, said Saturday in a nationally broadcast radio address that President Bush had failed to "devise a strategy for victory" and that the time had come to withdraw U.S. troops.

In the Democratic rebuttal to Bush's weekly radio address, Sanchez offered conditional support to a House war funding bill that requires combat troops to be out of Iraq by the end of 2008.

Bush has threatened to veto the bill, passed more than a week ago.

Sanchez, in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News on Saturday, cautioned that it's unrealistic to expect all GIs to be out of the country in a year, and noted that Americans could be there a decade or more. But, he added, "We've got to transition responsibility to the Iraqis as rapidly as possible and allow for a corresponding drawdown in our forces."

The White House said in a statement that Bush "appreciates General Sanchez's service to our country" and that a troop surge "is starting to deliver the intended results, and Iraq is now in a different phase than when he was commander on the ground."

Sanchez, 56, of San Antonio, is the first Iraq coalition commander to anchor the Democratic radio address. He has been critical of the administration's management of the war since retiring last year at Fort Sam Houston, telling the Express-News this past May that the best Washington could hope for in Iraq was a stalemate.

As the coalition commander, Sanchez said in Saturday's broadcast, he personally witnessed "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."

Bush, in his radio address, cited the sacrifices of Americans who have defended the nation over the centuries, including troops and first-responders.

As progress in Iraq continues in fits and starts, Sanchez said that America's military has become increasingly strained by the war.

He predicted it would take at least a decade to reverse the damage done to the Army's ability to fight future wars.

The service, he added, is at its "lowest level"of force readiness since Vietnam.

sigc@express-news.net