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Obama to Name Eric Shinseki to Head Veterans Affairs

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Bitek

Lifer
Rumsfeld nemesis Shinseki to be named VA secretary By HOPE YEN ? 1 hour ago WASHINGTON (AP) ? President-elect Barack Obama has chosen retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki to be the next Veterans Affairs secretary, turning to a former Army chief of staff once vilified by the Bush administration for questioning its Iraq war strategy. Obama will announce the selection of Shinseki, the first Army four-star general of Japanese-American ancestry, at a news conference Sunday in Chicago. He will be the first Asian-American to hold the post of Veterans Affairs secretary, adding to the growing diversity of Obama's Cabinet. "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 said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" to be broadcast Sunday. NBC released a transcript of the interview after The Associated Press reported that Shinseki was Obama's pick. Shinseki's tenure as Army chief of staff from 1999 to 2003 was marked by constant tensions with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, which boiled over in 2003 when Shinseki testified to Congress that it might take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the invasion. Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, belittled the estimate as "wildly off the mark" and the army general was forced out within months. But Shinseki's words proved prophetic after President George W. Bush in early 2007 announced a "surge" of additional troops to Iraq after miscalculating the numbers needed to stem sectarian violence. Obama said he selected Shinseki for the VA post because he "was right" in predicting that the U.S. will need more troops in Iraq than Rumsfeld believed at the time.
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Wonder how much of this was an FU, a payback for Shinseki not cowing to the admin and speaking his honest opinion, or pure for competence for the post? Prolly more political than anything, but nice to see Shinseki get finally rewarded for honesty when everyone else just tried to sell the BS war.
 
It would be a bigger FU if Obama had Shinseki appointed to a position in the DoD, but this works well enough. I also think it's a good choice, as Shinseki appears to be one of the top commanders when it comes to concern about the welfare of the troops.
 
Thank you Obama, Shinsiki was right and like Colin Powell, was another causality of GWB&co. Under the doctrine that one good apple can spoil a whole barrel of rotten apples, Powell and Shinsiki had to go during the GWB watch, both both Powell and Shinsiki are now more than owed a chance to prove that they always had the right stuff. They may not be perfect human beings, but between them, many of us still respect them greatly. Next up on the owed list is General Tugaba.
 
Rumsfeld is probably like "Hahaha, that guy that said we'd fuck up and we'd fired is gonna have to clean up our mess!"

Edit: oops he wasn't fired -> forced retirement?
 
A wonderful choice. Props to Obama and Shinseki. Now, what to do about that brown nosing suck up sycophant that Bush picked to run CENTCOM as a shabby second rate paid off replacement of the most highly respected Admiral Fallon.

Patraeus' fellow flag rank officers must sneer, grimace and grind their collective teeth at the mention of his name.
 
Smart move.

Now if he can get Chertoff's disastrous operations re-directed, and get FEMA out from under that ivory tower.
 
Shinseki had the integrity to speak truth to power. Seems like Obama is sending a clear message that he respects that, even demands it of his subordinates, revealing his own integrity in the process.

Should prove to be an excellent choice.
 
Originally posted by: Jhhnn
Shinseki had the integrity to speak truth to power. Seems like Obama is sending a clear message that he respects that, even demands it of his subordinates, revealing his own integrity in the process.

Should prove to be an excellent choice.
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Full agreement on all points here Jhhnn.

Now, let's compare Obama's methodology, the underlying principles that guide it and the resultant appointments that are occurring from that process against Bush and Cheney's methods, principles and appointments and it becomes quite clear how the Bush administration got to be as dysfunctional and corrupt as it is.

 
Originally posted by: Rainsford
It would be a bigger FU if Obama had Shinseki appointed to a position in the DoD, but this works well enough. I also think it's a good choice, as Shinseki appears to be one of the top commanders when it comes to concern about the welfare of the troops.
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Sweet, hopefully I get some extra money somehow out of this 🙂
 
Originally posted by: SP33Demon
Obama is proving to be rational in his picks, surprise surprise.
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I didn't vote for Obama, but I'm not surprised. I certainly hope that he does a great job for 8 years. As regular citizens, for the most part, we'll just have to sit here and watch what he does, and if he listens to these advisers.
 
Originally posted by: tweaker2
A wonderful choice. Props to Obama and Shinseki. Now, what to do about that brown nosing suck up sycophant that Bush picked to run CENTCOM as a shabby second rate paid off replacement of the most highly respected Admiral Fallon.

Patraeus' fellow flag rank officers must sneer, grimace and grind their collective teeth at the mention of his name.
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What's wrong with Petraeus??
 
Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Originally posted by: tweaker2
A wonderful choice. Props to Obama and Shinseki. Now, what to do about that brown nosing suck up sycophant that Bush picked to run CENTCOM as a shabby second rate paid off replacement of the most highly respected Admiral Fallon.

Patraeus' fellow flag rank officers must sneer, grimace and grind their collective teeth at the mention of his name.
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What's wrong with Petraeus??
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Patraeus comes from the same bunch of ingratiating yes men that Bush and Cheney cannot live without, the likes of which got Shinseki and other genersls who stood up to Bush/Cheney fired and/or retired.

Google "Patraeus Fallon" for more detail.

 
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