Abu Ghraib

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Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded all U.S. forces in Iraq for a year, retired from the Army November 1. He pointed to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal as “the key reason, the sole reason, that I was forced to retire. I was essentially not offered another position in either a three-star or four-star command."


Gen Sanchez


The 55-year-old retired in a formal ceremony at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. He served in the military for 33 years.

Brigadeer General Janis Karpinski was demoted to the rank of colonel in May 2005, for dereliction of duty, lying to investigators, failure to obey a lawful order and – hold on to your hats - shoplifting. Karpinski had failed to inform the Army about an earlier arrest on an Air Force base on the misdemeanour charge.


BG (Now Colonel) Karpinski


She was the commander of three large US- and British-led prisons in Iraq in 2003, eight battalions, and 3400 Army reservists. Sanchez was her boss. At least, as much as anyone was.

Sanchez and Karpinski can, of course, say what they want. So can I.

Karpinski should have been given a bad conduct discharge and prison time. Sanchez is lying about the scandal bringing him down. It was his poor performance in the scandal – his failure to stop it, to investigate, to fire and to punish the criminals like Karpinski and her flunkies – which stopped his career.

I’m amazed that they kept him around as long as they did.

The Army apparently still has problems handling minorities – women and Hispanics – on the same basis as they handle white folks. After all these years, you still make out better if you are a minority or a woman.