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I am extremely pleased with this appointment ~ I didn't know much about Shinseki before he put his very distinguished career on the line with his blunt honesty and astute assessments that flew in the face of the Rumsfeld, et al, fantasy mindset ~ and that, coupled with Shinseki's love and respect for the troops, earned Shinseki my immediate respect ~ while there is obviously no way to retract the wrongs that have been heaped upon our veterans, Shinseki is the man to make those wrongs a thing of the past ~ Sooz
Shinseki pick good for war vets, bad for neocons
By MARTIN SIEFF Published: Dec. 8, 2008 at 1:11 PM
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Barack Obama's selection of former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric K. Shinseki as his first secretary of veterans affairs is a political coup that solves several political domestic problems for the president-elect. It also sends a strong signal to the world about the very different form the U.S. government's policymaking apparatus will take in the new administration.
Shinseki was the combat-experienced and widely respected Army chief of staff who publicly defied his political masters, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, by denying their contentions that the United States would be able to either get out of Iraq fast or keep the country pacified with only a handful of American troops.
Shinseki publicly warned the Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2003 that hundreds of thousands of occupation troops would be needed to maintain law and order and to rebuild civil society. He was publicly humiliated by Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and their allies, then dropped as army chief of staff as soon as they could under exceptionally humiliating circumstances. President George W. Bush and his White House staff treated the four-star Gen. Shinseki, a heroic Vietnam War vet, like a leper for the rest of their time in office. When Shinseki retired, Bush, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz did not attend the ceremony. Afterward, Bush and Rumsfeld were consistent in refusing to accord him any signal honors, despite his outstanding military record.
But now the times are finally changing: Obama has picked Shinseki to run the 240,000-strong Department of Veterans Affairs. After the Department of Defense, it is the largest staffed department in the U.S. government, and everyone agrees it has been run disgracefully. The standard of care for Vietnam War vets on Rumsfeld's watch plunged to levels not seen for generations.
Current Secretary of Defense Robert Gates insisted on major reforms and axed Rumsfeld's secretary of the Army to make sure his message got through. But the job of cleaning up the Veterans Affairs Department and giving the hundreds of thousands of Iraq War vets the standards of care and efficiency they have so strikingly lacked required a highly experienced military administrator who knows the army backwards, is dedicated to the welfare of its soldiers and is of such high public stature that he cannot be shunted around or ignored. In making Shinseki his secretary for veterans affairs, Obama has picked that kind of man.
The Shinseki appointment is another powerful signal to the world that the days of the neoconservatives as a powerful policymaking force within the federal government are over. The terms of office of 600 political appointees of the Bush administration are coming to an end, Gates told reporters last week. In fact, only a handful of them, probably 30 or 40, around only 5 percent or 6 percent, are expected to be asked to stay on for any period of time.
These appointees include the great majority of the appointments Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and their undersecretary of defense for policy, Douglas Feith, made during their time in the Pentagon. During the past eight years tensions between U.S. Army and Marine officers, especially those with combat experience in Iraq, and the civilian policymaking echelon in the Pentagon have plunged to levels of contempt and distrust not even experienced during the Vietnam War.
Nor will Shinseki be an isolated figure in the new Obama Cabinet. He will have a powerful ally in Gen. James L. Jones, the former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps whom Obama has chosen as his national security adviser.
Jones ran the Marines at the same time Shinseki ran the Army. Confounding the usual stereotype of Army-Marine rivalry and disharmony, the two men were close colleagues and warm friends who were drawn together by their shared disapproval of the way the Rumsfeld team made policy on Iraq.
No Washington administration in modern times has received more criticism on its poor record of care for U.S. war veterans than the Bush administration during Rumsfeld's six-year tenure as secretary of defense. By picking Shinseki as secretary for veterans affairs, Obama is sending a message to the men and women of the U.S. armed forces that he is more committed to their welfare than his predecessor ever was, and that he is prepared to prove it with action, not just empty words.
http://www.upi.com/news/issueoftheday/2008/12/08/Shinseki_pick_good_for_war_vets_bad_for_neocons/UPI-10131228759900/
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