You may have heard the reports that the former US commander in Iraq has said the war is now an unending mess. Turns out that he said a whole lot more (which includes a link to the speech, so you can judge for yourself).

[I]t seems highly ironic that the journalists covering the story attempted to cover up the acidic, biting, and mostly accurate criticisms of their own performance in this war while giving front-page treatment to Sanchez' criticisms of the political structure at the same time. If Sanchez has such credibility and standing to bring this kind of criticism to bear on Washington, why didn't the Post and other news agencies give the same level of exposure to his media criticisms as well? He basically accuses them of cynically selling out the soldiers to defeat American efforts to win the war ... but you'd never know that from the Post.

The Post then goes on to obfuscate a key part of the second half of Sanchez' speech. While he criticizes the Bush administration in sharp terms, Sanchez blames the Democrats in equal measure. ...

And most importantly, none of the press has managed to pick up on this key sequence in Sanchez' broadside at the American political establishment:

America has no choice but to continue our efforts in Iraq. A precipitous withdrawal will unquestionably lead to chaos that would endanger the stability of the greater Middle East. If this occurs it would have significant adverse effects on the international community. Coalition and American force presence will be required at some level for the foreseeable future. Given the lack of a grand strategy we must move rapidly to minimize that force presence and allow the Iraqis maximum ability to exercise their soveriegnty in achieving a solution.

UPDATE I probably ought to make this its own post, but the general theme of the speech is that Iraq need bipartisan support in our government. The military never promised to fix everything, and no matter how much military success we enjoy (and it has been a lot, by any real measure of military success), it won't be enough by itself. This is a very good point. How often do we hear the Democrats say that there is "no military solution" to Iraq? And how often do they propose something to help solve the non-military questions? How often do they, instead, try to upset Turkey by talking about a massacre that took place 90 years ago in the Ottoman Empire? Make no mistake, by upsetting Turkey, Congressional leaders are hoping that more US military will die. Sanchez's speech appears directed at Congress to get it involved in a much better way than to try to disrupt our own supply lines in a war.