General Shinseki named to Cabinet Post
General Shinseki was named to President Obama's cabinet today as the next Veterans Affairs Secretary. General Shinseki was the first Four Star General of Japanese-American ancestry and a major "wet Blanket" on the theory of a quick victory in Iraq. Shinseki testified in front of Congress in 2003 that it might take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the invasion. This was not taken well by the Bush administration and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz belittled the estimate as "wildly off the mark". As we know now General Shinseki was correct and all these years later we have many more troops in Iraq trying to finish the job.
This choice seems to be viewed as quite good.
"General Shinseki has a record of courage and honesty, and is a bold choice to lead the VA into the future," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "He is a man that has always put patriotism ahead of politics, and is held in high regard by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan."
Upon his retirement from the Military in June 2003,General Shinseki had some advise:
"You must love those you lead before you can be an effective leader," he said. "You can certainly command without that sense of commitment, but you cannot lead without it. And without leadership, command is a hollow experience, a vacuum often filled with mistrust and arrogance."
Shinseki also left with the warning: "Beware a 12-division strategy for a 10-division army."
Very observant considering the twists and turns this war has taken since then.
I got most of my information for this post from a story on AOL
Good Luck and Good Currency Trading.
Labels: Rambling's
posted by Banker at
Sunday, December 07, 2008
4 Comments:
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Too bad a spammer had to sully an article with some gravitas to it. Shinseki is one of my heroes. You might be interested to read this article, published last year but one of a few of this type that I revisit every so often:
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90001031
As a military officer, I can't even count the number of moments of deep doubt I have had about the integrity of civilian rule in this country. The Bush Administration has pushed the military to the brink, in terms of its readiness, its morale, and its respect for civilian rule and the rule of constitutional law. At a conference a few years ago, one general went so far as to say to us junion officers, "Remember, you do not serve the President. You serve the Constitution of the United States." This was quite a shocker to me and my peers. But it was true, in effect.
Shinseki had the moral courage to stand up to Rumsfeld, as did others, and he paid the price for that. It is good to finally see he is vindicated -- although he deserves far more, he is not the kind of guy who would ask for it. Very similar to Powell in that way. Of course, Powell was loyal to a fault.
The military often does not reward officers with moral courage and above average analytical power. In fact, those who have both usually end up leaving the military before they have a chance to change it for the better. (It isn't usually a matter of choice.) And yet their ideas often form the foundations of revolutions in military affairs, small and large. One example of this is Col Boyd -- the man who came up with the OODA loop and the philosophy behind it. The Marine Corps adopted his concepts not just for air tactics, but ground tactics. It is taught to every class of officers that come out of Quantico. And of course the business world has caught on, with academics plagiarizing his work and aggrandizing their own contributions beyond reasonable measure. Col Boyd retired from the Air Force in relative obscurity. He was passed over by careerist generals who were probably threatened by him.
Sad, but that is the reality. And it isn't just the reality in the military.
So my glass is raised to Shinseki tonight. We need someone who is truly on our side looking after our affairs.
Did I mention that Shinseki was the first Asian American four star general?
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LT do yuo think Shinseki can help with the Auto makers ? We can use it !
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