I don't know what the blogs have to say, but I think all I did was note the remarkable conincidence between the timing of the unprecedented relief of Shinseki early (forcing him into retirement) and the public statements re the amount of troops needed.
I may haev got the sequence wrong, but that wasn't my point (I think). A few weeks before or after -- the bottom line is the same. Do you think his statement in Congress was the first time he ever gave those estimates? Or, do you think he was telling the same things privately beforehand to his Boss (SecDef) and the other civilian morons Bush put in place at DOD?
Lots of professionals said things that Rumsfeld and/or Bush did not want to hear, which contradicted the new orthodoxy of the SecDef. If Rummy got tired of tuning them out, he weeded them out and put other people in place. I guess that's his prerogative, but the problem arises when the original folks were right and you just didn't want to listen.
This adminitration (particularly civilian DOD) has made a habit of pising on us and telling us its raining. I'm amazed at the number of people who seem to like it just fine.
S_A_M
