The importance of Obama's appointment of General Eric Shinseki as head of the Department of Veterans' Affairs may be lost on our British comrades, so let's take a moment to discuss.
Shinseki is most famous for telling Congress in 2002, when he was the head of the US Army, that invading Iraq would need at least 300,000 to 400,000 soldiers. Don Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz scoffed at him, leakers scorned him; the invasion was launched with 130,000 troops. It became apparent over time that Shinseki had been right. But too late -- he'd already been forced into "retirement" by the then-reigning powers that be, whom he had crossed unforgivably.
So the appointment is, among other more straightforward things, Obama's way of signaling a degree of "revenge politics." But notice that it's fairly subtle. It's a signal that Obama will make certain moves that will stick in it the collective Bush-Cheney face, but that he's going to do it in a comparatively quiet way. Pretty deft.
This is also the highest-profile VA chief I can recall in some time, signaling that the department won't be a backwater.
