Must be true then; I made the same observation on the thread "Shinseki To Head Veterans Affairs":

"...FWIW, not just a few believe that his SASC testimony in early '03 was less an honest assessment of OIF force levels than an attempt to "gold brick" the Army out of the mission as directed by the NCA. Wars are bloody, costly and play havoc with future procurement budgets, you know..."

Less "talkin' truth to power" than disingenuous testimony in the service of the Army's institutional interests? Remember that the U.S. Army cut the legs out from under Wes Clark in Kosovo, another war that they didn't want to fight.

As it was, the actual war phase was completed successfully with less troops than the coalition wanted (4ID was kept out of the fight because then Turks would not allow then to move through Turkey).

I wonder how many troops Shinseki wanted to go into Afghanistan?

The soldiers from elite units which had earned the right to wear the beret weren't impressed by Shinseki's attempt at elevating organizational self-esteem at the expense of tradition and merit.

Affirmative action for REMFs, as it were.

Before you folks like Bithead go off the deep end about the "all soldiers are elite" thing, please prove that that is what Shinseki thinks.

Whose program is it?

Next....

What's your percentage of disability Bit?

Not mine, but my Uncle's. He lived at the one in Buffalo for a while. We managed to move him out of the place.

My husband is a disabled veteran and I have to say rather than opening the hospitals up, they should go with the McCain plan and just issue a Veterans medical card and let veterans choose their own providers.

You know that is not a bad idea as long as it is a Medicare card.

There is good reason to have single payer medical program for all Americans beyond the cost savings and efficiencies inherent in such a system. One major benefit would be that instead of having separate interests battling over funding we would share a common interests for adequate funding for all Americans.

The more people we can get into the same single payor system the closer we get to universal health care for all Americans.

And besides, if the beret thing is the worst that you can think of ...

It took 6 months for my husband to get an appointment at the clinic an hour from here, and 18 months to get an appointment at the clinic about 30 minutes from here. VA care may be wonderful in large cities or in areas with large military populations, but rural states with low populations have shoddy care and it is difficult to get seen.

What's your percentage of disability Bit?

Bitsy is more the armchair warrior type Davebo. You know, talk tough as long as it is not your ass getting shot at...

Spoken like someone who has not been to a VA hospital in the last 20 years or so.

Well, I have and I concur. And add my father, nephew and uncle to the list of those happy with their VA care.

What's your percentage of disability Bit?

Presumably, someone will overrule him if he decides to open the doors to non-veterans under the theory that “we’re all veterans.”

How about opening up the VA hospitals to all on the theory that 'we're all Americans'?

I think it is only a matter of time before VA hospitals become federally funded general hospitals. They are are a well run model the rest of the public hospitals to emulate. Even private hospitals would benefit by learning from them. This can be done best if they are open to all.

Given this angle, one can better understand why Obama would be attracted to the idea of him being in that position. His paper qualificiations aside, I find this attitude of his disturbing. And if you think on it for long, in a general sense, it's an attitude he and Obama share.