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"...even the wicked get worse than they deserve." - Willa Cather, One of Ours

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Gen. Sanchez Loses Three Jobs in One Week, That Must Be Some Sort of Record

New York Times
No. 2 Army General to Move In as Top U.S. Commander in Iraq
...Pentagon officials said that replacing General Sanchez with the Army vice chief of staff, Gen. George W. Casey Jr...

[...]

His intended new assignment, which was to lead the United States Southern Command in Miami, may now have been given to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's senior military assistant, Lt. Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, leaving it unclear where General Sanchez will be assigned...

[...]

Under a new American military command structure drawn up for the post-June 30 political setting, a four-star officer will have overall responsibility but will focus on political and reconstruction issues with the designated American ambassador, John D. Negroponte. A three-star officer, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, will oversee daily military operations.

[...]

But something happened in the past few days to derail [the original] plan...

[...]

"Casey is a more forceful type than Craddock," said the defense official, who suggested that the last-minute changes may have been a result of Mr. Rumsfeld and his top advisers deciding they needed "a different personality."

"More importantly," said the official, "where is Sanchez going, because Craddock is going to Southcom instead, leaves no seats when the music stops."
Wow. Now Sanchez is being double demoted.

And the PR spin to make this sound like it isn't what it appears to be is definitely pretty weak.

First he loses his job as CJTF-7 (Command Joint Task Force 7, Iraq). Then he lost command of military forces in Iraq (Multi-National Forces Iraq), and now he has also lost command of the security liaison forces (Multi-National Corps Iraq).

On top of that it sounds like he has lost his scheduled promotion to the theater commander job (Southern Command would have been equal to Abizaid's job at Central Command).

"...the last-minute changes may have been a result of Mr. Rumsfeld and his top advisers deciding they needed "a different personality."

Rumsfeld was definitely not happy about Fallujah. Putting someone more "forceful" into the job was to be expected.

What it comes down to is that Rumsfeld must be well and truly pissed at Sanchez.

Remember, I predicted this last Sunday.

First Rule for Ambitious Generals: Never ignore the wishes of the boss.

And in particular, don't make him look out of touch in the media in the process.

Posted by: Zayphar / 5/25/2004 12:53:00 AM
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