Journal Sentinel buries ex commanders criticism of Iraq war

Yesterday the former top commander of American forces in Iraq, Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, blamed the Bush administration for a "catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan” and denounced the current addition of American forces as a “desperate” move that would not be successful.

Why did the Journal Sentinel bury it on page 4?

Sanchez public criticism of the Bush administration's prosecution of the war is surely bigger news than the tragic deaths of four people at a horse show in Madison, the paper's lead story.

Here's the page 1 New York Times story.

Petraeus's boss calls him sycophant!

General David Petraeus has provided President Bush's failed "surge" strategy in Iraq and the President himself with legitimacy.

But Petraeus boss, Admiral William Fallon, has little respect for Petraeus who he recently characterized as little more than a sycophant.

In sharp contrast to the lionisation of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the U.S. Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.

Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and added, "I hate people like that", the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.

That extraordinarily contentious start of Fallon's mission to Baghdad led to more meetings marked by acute tension between the two commanders. Fallon went on develop his own alternative to Petraeus's recommendation for continued high levels of U.S. troops in Iraq during the summer.

The entire article is linked.