The New Nation - Internet Edition

Ricardo Sanchez, former commander of ground troops in Iraq

I grew up in one of the poorest counties in the United States of America. At the age of fifteen, when the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps came to my high school, I immediately signed up. I loved the military from the very beginning. And by the time I was a junior in high school, I knew it would be my vehicle out of poverty. Today, after thirty-three years in the U.S. Army, I can look back with pride on a period of active duty that spanned from the Vietnam era to ground combat in Desert Storm, Kosovo, and Iraq. But my military career ended at a place called Abu Ghraib.

In 2006, I was forced to retire by civilian leaders in the executive branch of the U.S. government. I was not ready to leave the soldiers I loved. The Army was my life. Service to my nation was my calling. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, I watched helplessly as the Bush administration led America into a strategic blunder of historic proportions. It became painfully obvious that the executive branch of our government did not trust its military. It relied instead on a neoconservative ideology developed by men and women with little, if any, military experience. Some senior military leaders did not challenge civilian decision makers at the appropriate times, and the courageous few who did take a stand were subsequently forced out of the service.

From June 14, 2003 to July 1, 2004, the period immediately following major combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom, I was the commander of coalition forces, responsible for all military activity in the Iraq theater of war. I was there when Saddam Hussein was captured. I was there when the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib occurred. And I was there when low-level enemy resistance expanded into a massive insurgency that eventually led to full-scale civil war. During that first year of our nation's occupation of Iraq, I observed intrusive civilian command of the military, rather than the civilian control embodied in the Constitution. I saw the cynical use of war for political gains by elected officials and acquiescent military leaders. I learned how the pressure of a round-the-clock news cycle could drive crucial decisions. I witnessed those resulting political decisions override military requirements and judgments and, in turn, create conditions that caused unnecessary harm to our soldiers on the ground.

After our carefully planned and successfully executed invasion of Iraq, I arrived in the country and was stunned to find that there had been a complete lack of Phase IV post-invasion planning by the administration and the military. Not only was there no strategic vision of what to do next-there was a shocking lack of resources and proper training for our troops. To make matters worse, the combatant commander quickly ordered a massive withdrawal of American forces and redeployed the crucial high-level command centers. Instead of embracing a joint interagency approach, our government and military refused to abandon an outdated Cold War mentality. I find it ironic that I was later criticized for being the youngest and least experienced three-star general in the Army when I was actually one of the most experienced general officers in combined joint interagency operations at all levels of war.

Having fought in Desert Storm and Kosovo, I was well aware of the fundamental responsibilities of a commander in a war-fighting environment. Among the most sacred: to take care of subordinates and never send them into harm's way untrained. However, because of our rush to war and the need to mobilize rapidly, some units were deployed without proper training. This fact manifested itself across the board-among active-duty forces, the Reserves, and the National Guard. Some general officers chose to cut corners and certify units as "combat ready" when, in fact, they were not.

Throughout my tenure in Iraq, and right up to the day I took off my uniform to retire, I stood up on multiple occasions and adamantly refused to deploy soldiers who were not ready to fight. When circumstances on the ground required the need for establishment of standards and guidance for soldiers in a variety of areas (such as detention and interrogation procedures, among many others), we immediately acted. I made repeated requests to higher headquarters for help. But when the Pentagon refused to help us with interrogation procedures, I issued the guidelines myself. We knew it would become contentious to do so, but as a leader, I knew that without standards, an Army loses its discipline and chaos inevitably ensues. I had to take action for the good of our soldiers, our Army, and the mission.

The sad saga of Abu Ghraib encapsulates the essence of America's failure in Iraq. Abu Ghraib also represents America's initial abandonment of its commitment to human rights and the Geneva Conventions-and an eventual return to reason. In 2004, I refused to sweep Abu Ghraib under the carpet. I still refuse to do so. It remains the personal undertow of my story. When I became a soldier, I was a nonpartisan, nonpolitical individual who believed in the constraints of civilian control of the military. I also understood that, while on active duty, the Uniform Code of Military Justice precluded me from speaking out against my superiors while in uniform. If I valued my oath-and I did-I had to comply. Since leaving the service, however, I have been encouraged by both civilians and retired four-star military officers to write about my life, my career, and what really happened on the ground in Iraq. I believe now is the right time.

In this book, I will relate key life events and circumstances that have made me the person I am today. I will discuss key events of my military career with special emphasis on experiences and lessons learned that prepared me for my future leadership role as coalition commander in Iraq. The basis for that part of the story, including recreated conversations, is drawn from personal notes, diaries, official reports: an extensive chronological record of the activities, discussions, decisions, and issues I encountered during that time period.

Over the fourteen months of my command in Iraq, I witnessed a blatant disregard for the lives of our young soldiers in uniform. It is an issue that constantly eats away at me. During that time, 813 American soldiers lost their lives, and more than 7,000 were wounded. I cannot do, say, or write anything that would dishonor them. But to not set the record straight would, I believe, dishonor the legacy of their service. There is a camp of commanders who feel that retired generals should not stand up and voice their views on any policy, much less against a policy gone awry. I am now making camp with those who believe our voices must be heard in order to help America prepare for the future battles it must win-so that democracy itself survives. In Plutarch's Moralia, Dareios, the father of Xerxes, said that during battle, he became more levelheaded. I know the feeling. Whether on the field of battle where the wolf rises in the heart against a determined combatant, or in the hallways and back rooms of political safe houses where reason and truth are sometimes nowhere to be found, I strived to remain calm, keep a clear head, and make proper decisions. I had to. The lives of countless soldiers under my command depended on it. With each battle or crisis, I resolved to gain more wisdom in order to do better the next time out. My ability to do so was inspired, in part, by Psalm 144, which hung on the wall of every office I occupied since I was a major. I also carried it with me into the field wherever I went. I carried it in my heart.

Praise be to the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

He is my Loving God and my Fortress.

(Excerpted from Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story by Ricardo Sanchez. Copyright © 2008 by Ricardo Sanchez. Excerpted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.)

Book Review: "Wiser in Battle" begins with the story of Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez's early life, including what motivated him to join the Army. He then goes on to provide the inside story of events in Iraq after "Mission Accomplished, " when he took over military command, up to summarily being scapegoated and relieved over Abu Ghraib, followed by retirement.

Throughout "Wiser in Battle" Sanchez makes clear that Rumsfeld's micromanagement created confusion and frustration due to constant changes. Further, Sanchez believes Bush's declaring the Geneva Conventions inapplicable opened the door for gross negligence via subsequent failure to publish new standards, and ignoring the lessons of prisoner abuses at Bagram in Afghanistan. (Sanchez also declared the Geneva Conventions in force almost immediately after taking over in Iraq; unfortunately, his command did not extend to the CIA and special operations people involved there.)

Directly after taking over in Baghdad, Sanchez addressed the looting and fires, with his leaders identifying 350-500 sites to protect. Securing the innumerable ammunition dumps, as staffed, was estimated as requiring 3-5 years, so Pentagon leaders outsourced the job. Bremer arrived just in time to reverse plans to use Iraqi Army and some of its leaders in managing Iraq. Sanchez also highlights the confusion caused by landing in the midst of orders to send Gen. Franks' troops home, as well as suddenly releasing Sanchez's men who had been "stop-lossed. " Sanchez pulls no punches - clearly stating that the resulting problems cost billions as well as many American soldiers lives.

LG Wallace's sudden reassignment for an off-hand comment about not planning to fight a potential insurgency (actually we had no plans at all) didn't help any-one's confidence in taking charge either. (Sanchez also references Gen. Shinseki's being slapped down for his honest response to a Congressional question.) Bremer also took over police training that Army personnel were beginning the job; ultimately the job was given to Bernie Kerik who accomplished little other than endanger U.S. troops by his failure to coordinate with them.

Additional problems included lack of effective police, sporadic fuel and electricity, banks not being open, a non-existent judicial system, the Army's refusal to send lawyers to help with interrogation issues, severe restrictions on the use of foreign troops and the U.S. failure to provide promised trucks etc., unnecessarily stirring up Shiites by closing Sadr's newspaper and capturing one of his deputies, and unclarity of the relationship between Bremer and Sanchez. The latter became especially clear when Bremer ordered Sanchez to withdraw the Marines from Fallujah due to concern about affecting Bush's 2004 re-election - Sanchez refused, then settled for a unilateral cease-fire; later the battle was refought at a much higher cost.

The final pages were very eye-opening. Sanchez was visiting a new school named for him and caught sight of a childhood friend. The friend had left school to pursue migrant field work while Sanchez pursued JROTC. The friend was now the new school janitor, and Sanchez a three-star general! I'm left wondering how many others' lives have derailed?

Bottom Line: Investigations into Abu Ghraib found fault with Sanchez' leadership. On the other hand, he was burdened by poor underlying prison leadership and an incredibly fractured line of authority over the prison. My opinion is that we would all be better off with Sanchez, and others like him, still in the military.

(Reviewed by Lord E.Eskidso)

Shahidul K K Shuvra

The web portal of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, BASIS, is one of the most ordinary websites of the country, but the software trade body is obliged to provide extra ordinary services to the country's software industry. As regular internet surfers we have to click on many websites either for professional or personal purposes. The website of BASIS (www.basis.org.bd) is important for every software and IT enabled service related people like international and national companies, government offices, academicians, journalists, donors, NGO etc. As IT journalists we often visit the website for gathering information for preparing writing-ups and stories on IT industry. We cannot point out any speciality of the website and webpage designing mastery is totally absent. The white coloured website with light blue options cannot claim it is a noticeable website in the South Asia, even many websites of the country are many steps ahead of the website and websites of some member companies of BASIS are attractive than the web portal. Such poor web portal cannot be able to take credit to bring outsourcing and other IT businesses here.

Webpage designers of BASIS failed to show graphical tools over the website. Nice images can draw attention of surfers that can also inject affection in the mind of browsers. Informative contents can keep the surfers long time glued to a website as well as enlightening the netizens with updated information. The software think-thank already crossed its infant stage because next year it will be one decade old. Now its membership stands at 247, which are software developers and IT enabled service providers. Their many member companies are associated with multinational companies and internationally certified staffs are also available in some of their member companies. They claimed in the last Softexpo they are exporting software and IT services to 30 countries of the world. More than a dozen of its member firms are certified to ISO 9001 quality assurance standard. Several firms also are on course to obtain SEI - CMM level 3 certification.

The mentioned claims and background of the software trade body proved that they have enough experts and resources to develop a world class website with containing many information, research papers, market analysis, video, blogs etc.

Software developers of BASIS often try to walk on the path of Indian software industry. In fact, their dream is to take place in the international software businesses like Indian software industry did. Replicating the website of NASSCOM (www.nasscom.in) can be an easiest task and the website of Indian software industry can be a nice model to be followed. Whenever we visit the website of NASSCOM we see brilliant brains are playing role behind the building of the website. Its well-designed options showed deftly creativity of the webpage designers. Analytical contents represent brilliant thinking power of their hi-tech analysts. Regular upgraded information of the website will give you a full picture of Indian software industry. The option called 'Media Room' at the NASSCOM's website is 50 times better than the website of BASIS. Highly professional persons related with the media page to write contents of the website of Indian software trade body, which frequently upgrades the surfers on the IT industry. The press contents of BASIS are poorly written in a few lines, writing standard is below to the mark and as surfers we see absence of professionalism at the website. Journalists never get proper answers of their queries from the website. 'Newsline' option of the website of NASSCOM will make you thrilled to see Indian and world's IT domains. Stories and features like 'Women in IT' are excellent and innovative, such website is fully capable to earn international businesses. Versatile options of the website are so colourful and educative that are even rare in many famous western websites. The website of BASIS can post worthy interviews of some software pioneers of Asia as well as world. During preparing this website review we read the interview of Vincent Fernandez, CEO, STPL, at the NASSCOM's site. Vincent Fernandez is CEO of Software Technology Park Limited, a UK based Software Company, that develops innovative software application for Banks and Financial Institutions. He shared with surfers his over 25 years experiences in serving reputed companies like Electrolux of Sweden, Sonata Software, Sterling Group, Ericson, Zee Group etc. Landscape of Indian software industry is so big and should not be compared with BASIS's efficiency. So now we can turn to the website of Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and ITES, P@SHA, (www.pasha.org.pk), to know where the competence of BASIS lies. They have huge resources to read which need many months to finish. Videos and PODCAST will extend your knowledge on Pakistan's software industry. Even our BASIS is not interested to introduce simple blogs at their website. Blog is a must for a professional website to know views and opinions of surfers. To judge the surfers opinion there is an option for poll at P@SHA's website. You can comment on the quality of the website by clicking on 'excellent', 'very good', 'fair' and 'average'. E-newsletter posted at the site by a wonderful programming skill with manoeuvring huge information. The website designers of BASIS should visit the site to learn how to make a standard website.

Another website is Pakistan Software Export Board, PSEB, (www.pseb.org.pk), whose parent is government of the country. Like us they have many bureaucratic bottlenecks, but they built a western flavoured website. Mistakenly you can think you are browsing a professional and hyperactive website of USA. The home page of the website started by the quotations of international software icons like Arthur I. Anderson, Attorney, Fish & Richardson P.C., USA CEO and Mayor Bill White, Houston, Texas, USA. They lauded the quality and services of Pakistan's software industry. Many research and technical papers are available at the website for serving the advance learners of the software industry.

With a merit the website is presenting their software industry's total overview, even the website talks on Visa and logistic supports for foreign investors. Website of BASIS is not artistic and rich with essential contents compare to three mentioned websites of the software think-tanks of our neighbouring countries. Its option named 'Resource Centre' preserves a simple write-up.

You may say after clicking on 'Bangladesh IT Industry', it keeps some important PDF files, but the papers like ICT act 2006, Company act 1994, National IT policy, Export Policy 2006-9 are not developed by BASIS. However, it is good that they gathered the papers to post at the website. None of surfers can say the posted papers are user friendly because many surfers think PDF file is a hassle to download. ICT act 2006 posted in Bangla which is not readable for foreign investors. Why are they not feeling any urgency to translate the paper for international investors? A simple website, for example web portal of BASIS, can be developed by a fresh graduate in computer science who is almost without job experience. As the website mentioned the Web Portal is maintained by BASIS Secretariat.

Designed and developed by desme Bangladesh Ltd a subsidiary of desme Inc. So far the secretariat has no any research wing to developed mature contents and research materials. The website must be developed professionally and rich website can earn much for its sustainability as well as businesses.

Recently new executive committee of BASIS has been elected to run the national software trade body with the hope to increase the growth of software industry. We hope the new committee will be able to develop a mature and attractive web portal of international standard. The efforts and coordination between hi-tech thinkers and webpage designers can produce a magnificent website that can bring international businesses and facilitate domestic IT industry.