Thursday, January 11, 2007
Just wrote this to Margaret Carlson
...The former Time columnist, now writing for Bloomberg.
Dear Ms. Carlson,
Your column today contains a common but important factual error.
You wrote in today's column that " General Eric Shinseki once got the heave-ho for saying we did need more troops."
Where are you getting your information from? That is quite simply not true. You are perpetuating a common myth that is being spread by some with an axe to grind, and being further spread by weaker and more uninformed reporters. A correction is in order.
Consider the timeline:
Shinseki's term as Chief of Staff ended in June 2003, right on schedule. But Rumsfeld announced that his term would not be extended in March 2002. It was not until February 2003, almost a year later, that Shinseki advised Congress that the occupation of Iraq would require hundreds of thousands of troops.
Furthermore, Shinseki was not given the heave-ho at all. That is simply a lie. Shinseki served out every day of his term - a full four years, which is the usual standard. In fact, no Chief of Staff of the Army has served longer than four years since World War Two. Since when do people who have been "given the heave ho" serve out every day of their terms?
It is true that Rumsfeld named Shinseki's successor earlier than was customary, but that is quite a different thing.
Will you correct the record?
Dear Ms. Carlson,
Your column today contains a common but important factual error.
You wrote in today's column that " General Eric Shinseki once got the heave-ho for saying we did need more troops."
Where are you getting your information from? That is quite simply not true. You are perpetuating a common myth that is being spread by some with an axe to grind, and being further spread by weaker and more uninformed reporters. A correction is in order.
Consider the timeline:
Shinseki's term as Chief of Staff ended in June 2003, right on schedule. But Rumsfeld announced that his term would not be extended in March 2002. It was not until February 2003, almost a year later, that Shinseki advised Congress that the occupation of Iraq would require hundreds of thousands of troops.
Furthermore, Shinseki was not given the heave-ho at all. That is simply a lie. Shinseki served out every day of his term - a full four years, which is the usual standard. In fact, no Chief of Staff of the Army has served longer than four years since World War Two. Since when do people who have been "given the heave ho" serve out every day of their terms?
It is true that Rumsfeld named Shinseki's successor earlier than was customary, but that is quite a different thing.
Will you correct the record?
Comments:
"It was not until February 2003, almost a year later, that Shinseki advised Congress that the occupation of Iraq would require hundreds of thousands of troops."
I would think the correct question would be, when did he advise the administration about troops numbers?
I would think the correct question would be, when did he advise the administration about troops numbers?
But why would fact even enter the equation? He served out his full term and no one since WW2 have serve more than 1 term. So the fact is there is no heave-ho, he just finished serving his term, the end.
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