General Eric Shinseki, the former Army Chief of Staff, will be named by President-elect Barack Obama to head the V.A. This mornings Meet The Press will feature Obama, who will use the program to make the announcement. From the Washington Post:
“When I reflect on the sacrifices that have been made by our veterans and I think about how so many veterans around the country are struggling even more than those who have not served — higher unemployment rates, higher homeless rates, higher substance-abuse rates, medical care that is inadequate — it breaks my heart, and I think that General Shinseki is exactly the right person who is going to be able to make sure that we honor our troops when they come home,” Obama told NBC News’ Tom Brokaw in a interview taped for broadcast today on “Meet the Press.”
Shinseki, while Army Chief of Staff, disputed the theory that the Iraqi invasion could be done with a reduced troop number, putting him at odds with Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz. Rumsfeld drummed Shinseki out, and most now accept that Shinseki was correct in his initial assessment. Great choice by President-elect Obama.
Bill Manzi.com 
Your Honor,
He wasn’t right as he predicted it would take hundreds of thousands of troop. It did not.
Jules
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Oh he was right, and Don Rumsfeld was wrong. The lack of sufficient troop strength contributed heavily to our inability to win the peace after we won the war. Of course maybe we could cite poor planning, ridiculous assumptions, faulty intel, and brazen stupidity and arrogance, as contributing factors to our difficulty after the overthrow of Saddam.
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Jules what a RIDICULOUS statement!! Do the words “stop loss” mean ANYTHING to you?
I’m surmising you still hold the George Bush, May, 2003 “Mission Accomplished” mindset. Feel free to correct any misconception.
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You guys are still wrong.
Wars are difficult to pursue. Abraham Lincoln didn’t even win a significant victory until 3 years into the war. It was Grant who planned the strategy that finally won the war.
George Bush had the same problem. Took him time to find the right strategy, and it wsn’t his.
Mission Accomplished was thanking the troops for defeating the Iraq army. Not a finish to the war. In fact it was the begining of the urban war.
You guys simply were ridding the “hate George Bush” tactic applied after the Florida election and followed for eight years. He was going to be denegraded no matter what happened.
Now we will see how Obama handles things.
Jules
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Here is the General’s testimony, where he clearly states that the larger troop numbers would be needed to insure that people are fed, water distributed, and a large piece of geography simmering with ethnic tension would need to be controlled. He was right, and Bush/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Cheney were wrong about the troop strength needed.
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“Mission Accomplished was thanking the troops for defeating the Iraq army. Not a finish to the war. In fact it was the begining of the urban war.”
Ahh, so the statement “bring it on” was only an invitation to the urban part of the war.
Now I get it!!! So in the revised, cliff notes version of Bush’s war, we will learn that we WERE actually in control of the whole thing, the whole time after all! And ‘stop loss’ was only intended to compensate for troops we didn’t actually need — I feel so dumb!!!
Thanks so much for enlightening me Jules!
Let me guess, you’re for Palin in 2012, aren’tcha now?
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