Last week retired Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez joined a growing number of former military brass in throwing the Bush Administration under the bus when it comes to the war in Iraq. He cited a lack of leadership in the State Department, The National Security Agency, as well as the White House with failing to prepare adequately for the post-invasion phase of the war.

In clear yet awkward detail given his status as a former commander of the coalition forces in Iraq, Sanchez described the incompetence and neglect that characterized the post invasion planning and the utter disconnect between the reality on the ground in Iraq as the invasion was completed and the decision early on to disband the Iraqi Army. This single action taken solely by the former head of the Iraqi Provisional Government, L. Paul Bremer threw 400,000 well-armed and well- trained Iraqi soldiers out of work and into the roiling ferment of social and political upheaval. That is if you believe President Bush who said Bremer was acting on his own authority. Bremer has produced his own version of events that is in stark contrast to Mr. Bush’s version.

In his speech Sanchez said this was the catalyst for the insurgency that threatens to drag the entire region into a war that has no end in site. Our actions since that time has been one of attempting to “stave off defeat”, according to Sanchez.

But he saved his most bruising assessment for the men and women in the military chain of command who were primarily responsible for the planning of the war. He said they showed” an absolute lack of moral courage to stand up and do what was right in terms of planning. We allowed ourselves to believe the rhetoric that said we would be welcomed as liberators”.

The men and women of the military who today form the tenuous line between defeat and victory in Iraq, the Lieutenants and Sergeants and Privates who have trained and put their families and professions on hold in order execute the policy of the U.S. Government, rely upon the competence of their commanders and the fidelity of their government to do all that can be done to avoid war if possible or prepare for it if necessary, before requiring that they fight one.

Their entire lives- all they have or ever will have, is on the line. They put on a uniform and picked up a weapon and swore to follow the orders of the commander- in- chief, to execute the policy of his government by use of force. They are willing to spend themselves as the currency that is necessarily paid in battle to advance those national interests. They are us, all of us, but braver and more motivated and infinitely more willing, perfectly willing to give up all the joys of this life in order to do what they’ve been trained to do- follow orders and kill and sometimes, to be killed.

And yet, General, after General have now come forward and declared that these brave men and women have been betrayed by the very chain of command they follow and the very Government they have sworn to defend. Every drop of U.S. blood spilled on the dirty streets of Baghdad, or Mousil or any of a thousand other towns and villages in Iraq, is being spilled in the pursuit of a policy that those who once worked diligently to advance, now say is illegitimate and worthless. They are dying because the Bush Administration saw policy and prerogative as being the same thing. They wanted to believe what they wanted to believe and thus convinced, it became our nations policy.

Are the lives lost so far in this illegitimate adventure the sole requisite for continuing to loose more lives in Iraq? Is an effort so flawed and mismanaged worthy of continuation simply because it has now become too expensive to walk away from?

My Grandfather once told me that if you were determined to stop a lawn mower you could shove a leg or an arm into its whirling blades and if those limbs had sufficient mass it just might work. Or you could always just turn it off. That might work better.

Sooner or later we will find our way out of Iraq. The only question is when and at what cost.

There are better ways than the one we are now pursuing. Perhaps we should just hit the off switch.