Obama takes Shinseki for Cabinet, sources say

[dbackjon]

President-elect Barack Obama will nominate retired Gen. Eric Shinseki to be secretary of Veterans Affairs, two Democratic sources said Saturday.

Obama was expected to make the formal announcement Sunday -- Pearl Harbor Day -- at a news conference in Chicago. Veterans groups appeared to support the selection.

"I am excited. I don't know him personally but this is a huge move," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

For years, Shinseki, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, has been the patron saint of Pentagon critics who say the former Army chief's sage advice was ignored in 2003, resulting in too few U.S. troops being sent to Iraq after the invasion.

Shinseki testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2003 that "something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers would be required" to pacify the country. The comment infuriated some Bush administration officials, and he retired just a few months later.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/06/ ... index.html

[dbackjon]

Great pick. Bush should have made his defense secretary and canned Rummy. War in Iraq might have been over by now.

[Col Hogan]

Of what I know about him professionally, a true warrior who took care of his troops...

Talking to people who know him on a personal basis, he's described as a true gentleman...

Great pick, if true...

[houndawg]

Of what I know about him professionally, a true warrior who took care of his troops...

Talking to people who know him on a personal basis, he's described as a true gentleman...

Great pick, if true...

It's true, and good choice. Damn few officers have those kind of stones.

[SuperHornet]

OK. So now he has a Marine (a bleeping good one if you ask me) and a stinking Soldier. When the cr@p is he going to pick up a Sailor?

This discrimination absolutely STINKS!!!