Posted on 12/06/2008 3:44:15 PM PST by jamese777
Democratic officials say President-elect Barack Obama has selected retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki to be the next Veterans Affairs secretary.
The officials said Obama will announce his selection Sunday. They spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the official announcement. Shinseki is the former Army chief of staff who upset his civilian bosses in 2003 when he testified to Congress that it might take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the U.S. invasion. He was forced out of his job within months for being "wildly off the mark." But his words proved prophetic after President George W. Bush in early 2007 announced a "surge" of additional troops to Iraq after miscalculating.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcwashington.com ...
BS. If that were true Rumsfeld would still be SecDef. The tactics that were employed would not have been successful without the additional troops. Why would the Army increase troop strength/presence in country if they were not needed? Your theory lacks logic.
By Leo Shane III Stars and Stripes European edition
WASHINGTON — A Kentucky National Guard soldier on Thursday became the first woman awarded the Silver Star for service in the war on terror.
Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, a Tennessee resident; Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein, an Indiana resident who served as squad leader that day, and Spc. Jason Mike from Kentucky, a medic, all from the 617th Military Police Company, received their honors in a ceremony at Camp Liberty in Iraq. Hester is the first woman awarded a Silver Star since World War II.
“I'm honored to even be considered, much less awarded, the medal,” Hester told the American Forces Press Service. “It really doesn't have anything to do with being a female. It's about the duties I performed that day as a soldier.”
Army documents state that Hester was serving as team leader during a March 20 mission outside Baghdad when her convoy came under attack. Hester maneuvered her team through the kill zone, then turned around to assault the insurgent's trench lines with grenades.
According to soldiers' accounts, she entered the trenches with Nein and killed at least three insurgents with her rifle. The unit killed 27 insurgents in the attack without losing a single soldier.
“Your training kicks in and the soldier kicks in,” she told American Forces Press Service. “You've got a job to do — protecting yourself and your fellow comrades.”
The citation reads that her actions “saved the lives of numerous convoy members.” She has also earned the National Defense Service Medal, Global War On Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, and the Army Service Ribbon.
Hester, 23, was born in Kentucky and joined the state's Army National Guard in 2001. According to her Army bio, she lives in Nashville and works as a retail store manager.
Hester's father, Jerry, told The Associated Press that he is overwhelmed by his daughter's accomplishments.
“It's something to be very proud of, and my wife and I are. Leigh Ann is a very good soldier. She played softball and basketball all through high school, and she's won a lot of games. But those games didn't mean nowhere near what this medal does and what she's done for her country.”
The soldiers were presented their medals by Army Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, Multinational Corps Iraq commanding general, who lauded them as heroes.
Three other unit members received Bronze Stars with combat “V” for their actions during the ambush: Spc. Ashley Pullen, Spc. William Haynes II and Spc. Casey Cooper.
Receiving Army Commendation Medals with “V” were Spc. Jessie Ordunez and Sgt. Dustin Morris. All five were in the 617th MP Company as well
I must question the character of a man who wears a Ranger rocker but not a CIB or even an EIB, who arbitrarily declares the well-deserved headgear tradition/distinction null and void. I would LOVE to know the historical and psychological events that caused him to do this. I simply cannot believe that he was ever a truly a Ranger in his spirit.
I surely hope that whatever drove him to do it will not manifest itself against Veterans in general if he takes the helm at the VA. We’ve had some dandies in the past, and don’t need another.
the beret : Made in China
“The tactics that were employed would not have been successful without the additional troops. Why would the Army increase troop strength/presence in country if they were not needed? Your theory lacks logic.”
They wouldn’t have needed the extra troops if the tactics were used. They had to add them by the time the surge took place to regain control.
Bull squat - and Shinseki deserved every insult thrown at him...
Shinseki was no warrior and thought warriors were made by their uniform and equipment.... He was wrong.
Rummy for all his faults - was right on the numbers, assuming the numbers were comprised of REAL WARRIORS, not pansies of Shinseki... Rummy tried to force Shinseki to focus more on small, swift, deadly tactical forces.... Shinski thought more on the order of large set pieces, large artillery and pretty uniforms.....
Shinseki was another perfumed General - and bringing him back into any military role is a mistake and insult.
Do you at least acknowledge the fact that Rummy was against the surge? You can't make up history. Rummy's position against the surge caused McCain to say and I quote, "the war in Iraq has been mismanaged for years and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be remembered as one of the worst in history." You can spin all you want but the Petreaus led surge worked and Rumsfeld was against it.
We're going in circles here buddy. Gen Petreaus called for an increase in troop levels to support his surge and it worked. He didn't merely call for a change in Rumsfeld's tactics. There's no getting around the fact that without the additional troops Petreaus requested that Rumsfeld said weren't needed America wouldn't be as successful as we've been in Iraq.
“There’s no getting around the fact that without the additional troops Petreaus requested that Rumsfeld said weren’t needed America wouldn’t be as successful as we’ve been in Iraq.”
It wasn’t 500,000 troops buddy.
Shinseki is an idiot and a perfect example of a Clinton general.
Professional Military is Professional Military - but you ignored Da Coyote's point:
That Democrats pick the losers, both immoral and unprofessional, to be their Bitches.
Thank you for clarifying that...
I am not an expert on the military but I have always felt that promotions are earned and not based on political correctness or politics.
not really (RE Rumsfeld). This general said it would take 400,000+ troops. We are winning with less than half of that.
So we are contemporaries. As a side note I love to see the AF represented on FR. Can you honestly state that you didn't serve under honorable generals appointed by Clinton? I mean I served under a wing commander who got his first star under Clinton because he deserved it. He received his fourth under Bush. You know that's the way promotions work. You and I wore the same uniform and it said US on our chests. There are no Clinton generals or Bush generals only American generals.
He war only partly right by dumb luck.
The surge called for an additional 30,000 troops for a total of about 140,000 ....
Gen Shineski claimed we would need 300,000 troops or more ...
It was intelligence that enabled us to eventually win, not strength in numbers.
Tribal leaders at first were more scared of the crazy jihadists than US troops.
Once we turned the tribal leaders, and it took several years (which is where Rummy was wrong).. we essentially won the war fairly quickly.
You're correct, Petreaus didn't request 500,000 to ensure the success of the surge Rumsfeld was against. Gen Petreaus requested and President Bush authorized a troop surge that achieved the success we now enjoy in Iraq. A surge that never would have happened if Rumsfeld had remained SecDef. Gen Petreaus' surge saved American lives. We can only guess how many lives would've been saved if Rumsfeld had approved the surge.
Yep.
The father of the Stryker is GEN John Abrams, the Commanding General of TRADOC from 1998 to 2002.
The M-8 was canceled at the direction of the Secretary of Defense, William Perry in 1996. Shinseki became the Army Chief of Staff in 1999, three years after the M-8 was canceled.
Dittos.
Drift diver is right. I was there during the surge, the combination of additional troops and Petraeus’ tactics relating to insurgency were the keys to success. No one can tell me different as i was out of the wire damn near every day working with Iraqi military in conjunction with our coalition forces.
Hopefully, he will do a good job for the wounded soldiers. They are certainly pouring in.
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