General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top commander of coalition forces in Iraq, has added a bit more detail to his claim last night that his soldiers were “abandoned on the battlefield” by civilian leaders in the Bush administration.
Speaking this afternoon to CNN’s Rick Sanchez (no relation), General Sanchez repeated the charge that he and his soldiers were abandoned on the battlefield on the issue of harsh interrogations. General Sanchez explained that this occurred “because of a lack of policy guidance, a lack of structure, a lack of training.” He added: “And even when commanders were asking for this help, it didn’t come.”
Watch:
Earlier in the interview, General Sanchez referred to “dereliction of duty,” though when pressed by CNN’s Sanchez on who he was talking about, he declined to get specific.
We’ve contacted General Sanchez — who has said he was forced into early retirement because of the Abu Ghraib scandal, which occurred on his watch — for more information on this.