skip to nav

Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs: Eric Shinseki

Eric Shinseki

A Vietnam veteran ­ and missing a large part of his foot from an injury sustained in that war, ­ the four-star general was fired from the Bush administration in 2003 after clashing with then Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the number of troops needed for a successful invasion of Iraq. Shinseki suggested "several hundred thousand" more. As Obama says: "He was right". Among those welcoming the 66-year-old Asian-American into his job at the fourth largest cabinet office, with a budget of $90bn, are the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America who say "he has always put patriotism ahead of politics". There are some 25m veterans in America; post-traumatic stress disorder and the American recession are hitting them hard.

LAST UPDATED 3:54 PM, JANUARY 6, 2009


Back to Cabinet nominations More

ADVERTISEMENT

Comments

Hide comments

Add comment

You must be signed into your user account to add a comment.

  Forgotten password?
 
  or create an account

sign up for the daily email

ADVERTISEMENT

Sarah Palin's Progress
Our news digests
  • Newsdesk
  • People
  • Business Pages
  • Opinion
  • Sports Page
  • Sunday Papers

ADVERTISEMENT