CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre today disputes much of what brought Shinseki into the national spotlight, calling it “an appealing narrative,” but that the “facts as we know them are not nearly so complimentary to the retired Army chief.”
McIntyre asserts that Shinseki never recommended more troops for Iraq, but that “as Army chief of staff, it wasn’t really part of his job to take part in direct war planning.”
TIME’s Mark Thompson writes today that praise for Shinseki “needs to be calibrated.”
“While he believed that more troops were needed in post-invasion Iraq, he didn’t believe it strongly enough to lay down his four stars and resign. His supporters tend to overlook just how meek his public challenge to Rumsfeld was. He never volunteered it. Senator Carl Levin had to extract it from him, slowly and painfully, during a Senate hearing.”
Some explanation can be found in part of a profile summary on nytimes.com: “He has drawn criticism from people who thought he should have pushed his warning on Iraq more forcefully, even though as Army chief of staff he was not in the chain of command for conducting the war.”
Asked about the criticism in April 2006, Shinseki told Newsweek, “Probably that’s fair. Not my style.”
GovExec.com roundup by Amy Harder includes praise for Shinseki by Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), Senate Veterans Affairs Committee chair Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) from Shinseki’s home state, and pro-Obama veterans groups:
“Over the weekend, Barack Obama made an encouraging move to reverse that unintelligent design ["Bush Darwinism"] by appointing retired General Eric Shinseki to be the Secretary of Veterans Affairs,” wrote Arianna Huffington today. “While having had a long and distinguished career, Shinseki is most famous for getting it right when it came to Iraq - and for suffering the consequences typical in the Bush administration for getting it right: being shown the door.”
Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), a non-profit organization whose mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors, applauds President-elect Barack Obama’s announcement that he has chosen retired Gen. Eric Shinseki to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
“WWP offers its enthusiastic support for the selection of Gen. Shinseki, a soldier’s soldier and himself a wounded warrior, to head VA at this time of critical challenge,” said John Melia, Wounded Warrior Project Executive Director and Founder. “The selection of an individual with Gen. Shinseki’s distinguished record, courage and integrity sends a strong message to our nation’s wounded warriors and their families that the incoming administration takes seriously the commitment to care for our defenders.”
In a NewYorker.com post, Avi Zenilman says: “… as Peter Boyer noted in a Reporter At Large piece in the July 1, 2002, issue of the magazine, the tensions between Shinseki and the Bush Administration predated Iraq. At the time the article was published, it seemed like he was already on his way out, as Donald Rumsfeld, then the Secretary of Defense, and he fought over the future direction of the Army…”
The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) applauds President-elect Obama’s selection of retired Army Gen. Eric Shinseki as his secretary of Veterans Affairs, as well as his announcement of three Asian Americans to be appointed as senior White House staff: Peter Rouse, Chris Lu, and Tina Tchen.
“Gen. Shinseki has the personal experience and dedication needed to fight as hard for our returning veterans as they have for our country,” said Rep. Mike Honda, chair of CAPAC. “Gen. Shinseki is a friend and will be a strong advocate on behalf of all veterans, including Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. I proudly applaud President-elect Obama’s selection of the General as his secretary of Veterans Affairs. The President-elect continues to bring the best and brightest onto his team, reflecting America’s diversity.”
