A retired U.S. military leader last week strongly criticized the Iraq war. This was no ordinary general. Lt. Gen. Sanchez commanded coalition troops on the inside and obviously worked closely with the Bush maladministration in prosecuting the war. Here's the AP article:

The U.S. mission in Iraq is a "nightmare with no end in sight" because of political misjudgments after the fall of Saddam Hussein that continue today, a former chief of U.S.-led forces said Friday.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded coalition troops for a year beginning June 2003, cast a wide net of blame for both political and military shortcomings in Iraq that helped open the way for the insurgency — such as disbanding the Saddam-era military and failing to cement ties with tribal leaders and quickly establish civilian government after Saddam was toppled.

He called current strategies — including the deployment of 30,000 additional forces earlier this year — a "desperate attempt" to make up for years of misguided policies in Iraq.

"There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight," Sanchez told a group of journalists covering military affairs.

Sanchez avoided pointing his criticism at any single official or agency, but it appeared a broad indictment of White House policies and a lack of leadership in the Pentagon to oppose them. Such assessments — even by former Pentagon brass — are not new, but they have added resonance as debates over war strategy dominate the presidential campaign.

Sanchez went on to offer a pessimistic view on the current U.S. strategy against extremists will make lasting gains, but said a full-scale withdrawal also was not an option.

"The American military finds itself in an intractable situation ... America has no choice but to continue our efforts in Iraq," said Sanchez, who works as a consultant training U.S. generals.

Another military leader recently also provided a scathing critique of the war:

During a round table discussion on “the Fight for Oil, Water and a Healthy Planet” at Stanford University on Saturday, Gen. John Abizaid (Ret.), the former CENTCOM Commander, said that “of course” the Iraq war is “about oil“:

“Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that,” Abizaid said of the Iraq campaign early on in the talk.”

The war is as much a part of our lives now as baseball. The rhythm of the baseball season is similar to the rhythm of war. Some bad news, some good news, mostly bad news, and God knows what the hell the President is talking about and who believes him anyway? But we know very little about the war because battlefield scenes are not televised and we still can't see caskets coming home from Iraq. So the war is like a movie that's always playing next door. Occasionally the volume is too loud, but for the most part it's background noise, something we've come to live with.

Our level of cynicism is so high that we understand the government lied through its teeth to push for war and that the American people wanted some kind of convincing response to 9/11, even if we attacked the wrong country. It's like a kid who shoots up the high school and kills 15 innocent classmates after being teased by the jocks. It's always the same excuse: "I had to do something." The difference is that the kid with the guns goes to jail and the President gets re-elected.