From Abu Ghraib to the U.S. Senate?

Lieut. General Ricard Sanchez and Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld aboard a CH-47, heading for a tour of Abu Ghraib prison, May 2004 / DoD photo by Jerry Morrison

The Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld (left), U.S. Secretary of Defense, speaks with U.S. Army Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez (right), Commander, Coalition Ground Forces in Iraq, as they fly aboard a U.S. Army CH-47E cargo helicopter on May 13, 2004, enroute to visit U.S. military personnel stationed at Camp Victory, Abu Ghurayb (Abu Ghraib), and Baghdad, Baghdad Province, Iraq, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jerry Morrision) (Released)

Ricardo Sanchez, who ran the ground war in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, is thinking of running for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Texas, McClatchy Newspapers report:

Democrats appear to have recruited retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez to run for the U.S. Senate in Texas, setting the stage for a potentially competitive race in 2012 for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

The retired Army three-star general left Iraq under a cloud because he was commander at the time the abuses occurred at Abu Ghraib prison. He didn’t pull punches in his 2008 book, Wiser in Battle, written two years after his retirement. Strange how many of the books written by Americans who helped run the Iraq war have spent many pages firing for effect against their former comrades.