"Shinseki’s tenure as Army chief of staff from 1999 to 2003 was marked by constant tensions with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, which boiled over in 2003 when Shinseki testified to Congress that it might take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the invasion.

"Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, belittled the estimate as “wildly off the mark,” and the army general was forced out within months. But Shinseki’s words proved prophetic after President George W. Bush in early 2007 announced a “surge” of additional troops to Iraq after miscalculating the numbers needed to stem sectarian violence."

I remember one of our erstwhile Conservatives lecturing me when the guy was fired. It was obviously because he dared to give his honest opinion as a military person in the Bush administration. The party line was amazing - he'd served too long, he was overdue for replacement, the line may even have said he had accrued too much vacation and sick leave, he wanted to retire, he would be of more use as a consultant, his mother was ill, and God knows what all.

Plain and simply he was right and honest at a time when ideology ruled regardless of reality. Lots of people died because of that.

Arf