Absolute Loyalty

It has become a truism that to deviate even slightly from the approved script regarding Iraq brings down denunciations of disloyalty and ulterior motives. So it comes as no surprise that the latest victim is the former commander in Iraq Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez:

Republicans reacted with surprise and recrimination Sunday to blistering criticism of the Iraq war from former coalition commander retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez.

Leading the charge is none other than Sen. Lindsey "Five Rugs for Five Bucks" Graham (R-The Closet):

"I'm astounded, really...every time we talked to Gen. Sanchez, we got pushback -- we have enough troops; Guard and reserves aren't being strained," Graham said.

Now for the interesting part:

[Graham] added that Sanchez's own record in Iraq is blemished: Abu Ghraib "got out of control under his watch. The war in general got out of control under his watch."

That's amusing. Previously, Lindsey declared that the ultimate responsibility for the abuses at Abu Ghraib lay with Brg. Gen. Janis Karpinsky despite the fact that Sanchez gave the order:

Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq, borrowed heavily from a list of high-pressure interrogation tactics used at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and approved letting senior officials at a Baghdad jail use military dogs, temperature extremes, reversed sleep patterns, sensory deprivation, and diets of bread and water on detainees whenever they wished, according to newly obtained documents.

So what we have here is a general avoiding any responsibility for his actions, a senator aiming his fire at whomever is politically convenient at the moment, and an entire ideology based on a cult-like devotion to a discredited idea.

This is another truism: Everybody involved in this outrage is scum.

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