UPDATED: Obama just made the announcement. New video now available.
According to the Washington Post, Gen. Eric Shinseki will be named as Barack Obama's selection to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. A little payback perhaps for the treatment of Shinseki by the Bush administration and them firing him for telling the truth about troop levels in Iraq? Or a reward for his honesty by Obama?
From Feb. 25, 2003:
SEN. LEVIN: General Shinseki, could you give us some idea as to the magnitude of the Army's force requirement for an occupation of Iraq following a successful completion of the war?
GEN. SHINSEKI: In specific numbers, I would have to rely on combatant commanders' exact requirements. But I think --
SEN. LEVIN: How about a range?
GEN. SHINSEKI: I would say that what's been mobilized to this point -- something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers are probably, you know, a figure that would be required. We're talking about posthostilities control over a piece of geography that's fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems. And so it takes a significant ground-force presence.
And more from the documentary No End in Sight:
