Brodner’s Person of the Day: Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez

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Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, who, when in Iraq, got his name muddied at Abu Ghraib. Now retired, he, as so many have done, remained silent for some customary period of time. Then, suddenly, as if an egg timer attached to his head has gone off, he burps out the truth. We have many courageous troops overseas. I would guess that General Sanchez would count as a “troop.” But I’m not seeing the courage. Here’s what he said anyway. Also catch the video the Times has up, as recommended by Elizabeth Traynor.

MSNBC:
“In one of his first major public speeches since leaving the Army in late 2006, retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez blamed the administration for a ‘catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan’ and denounced the current ‘surge’ strategy as a ‘desperate’ move that will not achieve long-term stability.

“‘After more than fours years of fighting, America continues its desperate struggle in Iraq without any concerted effort to devise a strategy that will achieve victory in that war-torn country or in the greater conflict against extremism,’ Mr. Sanchez said, at a gathering here of military reporters and editors.”

Watch the video.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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