This is General Shinseki’s retirement speech of yesterday. I don’t know enough about the internal disagreements to have a considered opinion about which side was right (either, for example, about the Crusader artillery system or about the size of the force the should have gone into Iraq--Shinseki wanted the Crusader and wanted a large force in Iraq than Rummy was willing to have), but this is an interesting speech that merits analysis by those who are in the know (and for later use). Note the reference/question regarding civilian control of the military, and the size of the army being insufficient for future use. He is cautioning us. Also note that neither Rumsfeld nor his undersecretraies, or Wolfowitz were present (I know Rummy is in Europe). He doesn’t even mention their names; no thank you, for example. Here is a WaPo article on his
replacement and some more on the friction between Rummy and him.