(Army Times) Editorial: Shinseki as VA secretary

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Shinseki as VA secretary

Nominating retired Army Gen. Eric Shinseki as secretary of veterans affairs is the latest bold move by President-elect Barack Obama to reassure troops and veterans that he intends to look out for their welfare.

Like his decisions to keep Defense Secretary Robert Gates in that job and naming retired Marine Commandant Gen. James Jones as his national security adviser, Obama’s nomination of the former Army chief of staff to lead VA has the potential to prove similarly inspired.

Shinseki served for 38 years, despite losing part of a foot to a land mine in Vietnam. As a combat veteran and a disabled veteran, he has instant credibility as VA secretary.

But in his years as Army chief of staff, Shinseki showed a quirk that could work against him at VA — he sometimes went into a defensive crouch when his views and decisions were criticized.

When he decided in 2000 that all soldiers would wear black berets, for example, his refusal to define his reasons for such a dramatic change and to make any effort to sell it to his troops led to a public relations fiasco that dragged out for many months.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/community/opinion/army_editorial_shinseki2_122208/%2e