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Shinseki’s nomination draws praise

The choice of former Armed Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki to head the Department of Veterans Affairs has won quick praise from a key lawmaker as well as from the most prestigious organization representing Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans.

Shinseki, who retired as the Army’s uniformed service chief just months after the start of the Iraq War, could be the kind of leader to overhaul the VA, said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman.

“His past leadership as chief of staff in the Army coupled with his brave service as a four-star general will bring a new energy to the Department and bring hope to our veterans,” Filner said in a statement, adding that the “stakes are high.”

“Our veterans need to know that their service to our country is respected and honored,” he said. “A new basis of stable funding must be developed. The claims backlog must be attacked in a new and dynamic way. And the mental health of our veterans — from every conflict and each generation — must remain a high priority.”

Obama has promised to improve VA budget forecasting and to push for advanced funding for veterans’ health programs so it is known one year in advance how much money will be available.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the biggest organization of combat veterans form the two ongoing wars, issued a statement endorsing Shinseki as a “bold and historic choice.”

Shinseki “has a record of courage and honesty,” the statement said.

“General Shinseki is widely-respected, honest and experienced. He is a man that has always put patriotism ahead of politics, and is held in high regard by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan,” the organization said. “The President-elect has demonstrated an understanding of the urgency of the issues facing America's veterans by making this announcement early.”

Like Obama, Shinseki was born in Hawaii but while Obama went to Harvard, Shinseki went to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1965. Shinseki served two combat tours in Vietnam, and lost part of a foot in land mine explosion, making him a disabled veteran.

Shinseki, who comes from a Japanese-American family, was the first Asian American to be Army chief of staff when he took the post in 1999.

His tenure atop the Army included several controversies. One of his early decisions was to have the whole Army wearing berets, something previously limited to special units. While generating a lot of complaints and tension, Shinseki’s decision held.

He was not so lucky with his push for the Crusader artillery system, something the Bush administration decided to cancel. Attempts by Shinseki aides to do an end-around the Pentagon to get Congress to save the program resulted in Shinseki being taken to the woodshed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who tried to use the incident to remind uniformed military leaders who was in control.

The end to Shinseki’s career came after a very public disagreement with the Bush administration. Shinseki told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a February 2003 hearing that he believed the Army would need “several hundred thousand soldiers” to carry out the Bush administration’s planned invasion of Iraq, an estimate that ended up being very close to right although it raised hackles of civilian war planners at the time.

After that disagreement with top Bush national security officials, Shinseki was not nominated for the traditional second term as chief of staff, and retired.

Because he has a long record of service, is a disabled veteran himself and has shown he will stand up to people in power, Shinseki is not expected to have any difficulty getting confirmed by the Senate, according to current and former congressional aides. Nominating hearings could be held in early January, even before Obama is sworn in Jan. 20, but a vote could not occur until Obama takes office and makes the formal nomination.