in the wrong direction.

.

credited for undertaking it (he could have just stayed retired, after all), even if some things went sideways.

Your service to this country is greatly appreciated!

Thank you for your service, General Shinseki. I believe you are a good man who is being subjected to a witch-hunt abetted by cowards and amnesiacs.

For everything but the black beret. I hate berets.

K&R

You did a lot of really good work for the VA General, and we are all proud of you, and the accomplishments you were able to bring.


The VA is a highly respected organization among the majority of veterans. We know how hard the great majority of workers are there, and we especially appreciate your leadership over the last five years at VA.


Thank you sir, and good luck!


(Preseeeeennnt Arms!)

for all you have done for our country. It would be a pleasure to meet you.

Polly

You have my gratitude and respect.

Good to have you with us! I think there are many of us who feel this way. This man fell on his sword. Honorable to the end. And he stood up for those who got sent into harm's way when nobody else had the balls to do so - during the whole bush/cheney nightmare. Not ever gonna forget that!

I'm usually an innocent lurker, but every now and then I feel the need to speak up. This was one of those times.

The President had said "and I chose to not accept his resignation. The blame falls clearly at the feet of others".

Visibility would be 4 ft in DC.

This is a world of politics by way of personal destruction. They can't debate ideas, so they have to tear down and destroy people.

That kind of warfare has casualties, and today, they got one. Sucks.
I don't blame the president for moving forward, and it's my hope the Shinseki asked him to do it.

Your resignation saddens me but it is the highest self-sacrifice you can make for your Commander-in-Chief.

Thank you sir.

General Shinseki. This saddens me.

Which is a sad state of affairs, and even if the blame may not fall on your shoulders, your name is the one attached to this fiasco.

Yup, those are the people who should be punished.

I am saddened by your resignation. The wrong person was punished here.

GOP blocks help for the VA by party line vote...except 2 Republicans who voted yes. Then they place blame elsewhere. This should have shouted out instead of taking his resignation.

FL senator Bill Nelson was the only Democrat who did not vote that day, Feb. 27. I have wondered why.

This week he said he would not call for Shinseki's resignation, but he would go along if it were necessary. He had an opening to say much more, but he didn't.

I never served under your leadership while in uniform, but I did as a civilian. Your integrity, dedication, commitment and caring is that of legend.

I would follow and support you anywhere.

It is truly sad that you (and by extension all veterans) were (and are continuing to be) done in by those currently in leadership positions (I am talking of senior leaders, not workers) within the VA who know they are essentially 'untouchable'. They resist anything that does not personally benefit them or their 'kingdom', and they will obstruct and/or derail any efforts they oppose. They have done so successfully for decades. If/when things really heat up they always seem to have a few underlings to throw out for sacrifice. Things then cool off and it is back to business-as-usual. This NEVER changes, but eventually it must if the organization is to truly improve.

And in all of this...the Veteran is the loser.

Glad you're here! And thank YOU for your service as well. Your point is SO well-taken, and it needs to be said, and heard!

Seems to me the best way to honor and serve our veterans is to STOP CREATING MORE OF THEM!!!!!!

Thank you sir!

I have been to the VA a lot in the last 6.5 years or so and have noticed a great improvement in during that time. I'm grateful for the services and treatment I have received and I'm not at all happy to see your resignation.

I hope you sleep well knowing that you did a great job and the organization you attempted to wrestle and improve has made a hugely positive difference in my life.

Thanks for your service. Thanks for trying to tell people what would really happen in Iraq.

Thanks... And on to your new adventures.

When politicians fail, the service catches the shit. If only the politicians were treated equally to the veterans in their post service lives.

You played a rigged game as well as you could and did a fair job of it. Thank you for your effort.

during the bush/cheney madness. And he was sidelined for it, too. It's a damn shame this had to happen to him. Thank you General, from one of millions of civilians you served, AND spoke for!

veteran. However I do think that he needed to go. And no less than Tammy Duckworth, a good progressive agrees with me.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/05/30/rep-tammy-duckworth-on-eric-shinseki-i-think-he-has-to-go/

http://www.progressivepunch.org/members.htm?member=412481

sabotage their own party go? Should Scalia and Thomas on the Supreme Court go? In fact, should the entire Supreme Court go? Change of personnel is not going to solve this massive program. Maybe many will get a good night's sleep because they have been successful in dumping the mess on Shinseki, but at the end of the day, the mess is still there.

General Shinseki is a patriot and he was a loyal and caring official in the administration. He realized that his continuing to serve in that capacity would be an unneeded distraction. Now that we are past this lets get to work and try to fix the problems at the VA.

And sure Boehner and Clarence Thomas and others need to go, but they are not officials in the Obama Administration and the dynamic is different in the case of them.

General Shinseki deserves to be thanked for his service to this country in both his civilian and military roles. Unfortunately, the problems at the VA are real, not some contrived Republican scandal like Benghazi. Although I would argue (and many here would agree) that the VA's problems are rooted in GOP assholery and insufficient funding, at the end of the day Gen. Shinseki was in charge and presided over that. Resignation was the honorable thing to do, and the politically necessary one as well. It's up to us Democrats to vindicate him by voting Republicans out in November.

For your dedicated 50 years of service.

He was railroaded out of town. The blame lays at the feet of Bush and Congress.

.....for standing up to war whores like Cheney and Rumsfeld and speaking the truth about what the Iraq war would cost the U.S.

The VA is being used as an example of single payer health care gone bad and that's wrong, but the corporate media is all over it. Thank America's unique for profit, free market approach to health care for every problem in the health care system today. General Shinseki didn't create this mess, but he couldn't fix it either. I wonder if anyone can.

Either we're going to quit treating anyone who can't pay, the Republican approach, or we are going to treat everyone. I'll vote pro life on this one: treat everyone!

there would be far less people needing the services of the VA.

So True--hissyspit--Those missing billions from the Iraq War have been ignored by the corporate owned media!!! My sincere gratitude to General Shineski for his amazing service to his country. As Senator Sanders pointed out that the VA under General Shineski converted the system from paper to digital which actually reduced the waiting time & under his leadership the VA reduced the number of homeless veterans. Well Done Sir!!!

I guess, if you're a 'Dick Cheney' type you can make it in Washington!

Another good retired general has been shoved out by the right wing nuts and some left leaning dems. Shinseki was honest and truthworty more than many of his accusers.
GOOD LUCK GENERAL AS A VETERAN YOU DID US PROUD!!!

Thank you for your service and for speaking out in the face of overwhelming opposition.

We all know this was to back up their LIES about Iraq.

you had to catch flak for things initiated under the previous administration and their need to start unnecessary wars.

Hold your head high.

he had to resign because those assholes who voted against the Vets in Congress were calling for his head and these stupid Dems were taking their lead and calling for his blood.

Dudette @Dudette9t9
Follow
@Smartypants60 Dems saw GOP vote down bill after bill. Then piled on SecShinseki instead of placing blame where it shld be. Disgusting!
7:56 AM - 30 May 2014

16 Retweets 8 favorites

Thank you for opposing the war in Iraq - making this your second forced resignation. Both caused by politics for power at any price. Benghazi wasn't working so they had to find another distraction from the destruction they have done. Election year politics. Thank you sir for your service. Just returned from a day at the VA with excellent medical care and NO WAIT TIMES!

I can compare the VA to 20 years of employer funded private health care under the insurance system and it is so much better! You get the care you need not the care that they can get the system to pay for.

He served his country well, with dignity, courage, and integrity. And he continued that same service as Secretsry of a broken system, overwhelmed by the longest war in the country's history, and with the nickel and diming of the VA by the GOP year after year.

Thank you General.

often not appreciated in Washington.

As for IAVA, they have lost my support forever for throwing him (and all the prior war vets, especially the Desert Storm vets whom they refuse to even acknowledge) under the bus.

And those who voted against VA funding will end up in Shepherd Book's special place.

I wish you had not resigned.
Your detractors will get whtat's coming to them.
Godspeed, sir!!

it a free speech free ride.

how many more good people will be swiftboated because we let 450 loudmouthed lying idiots on 1200 radio stations, many of them wearing sports team logos of our state funded colleges, yell all day without being challenged?

shinseki joins the ranks of van jones, ACORN, shirley sherrod, and many more citizens and politicians to become trophies in that talk radio museum.

My best wishes for him, whatever he endeavors.

The Veterans and people know the truth.

Thanks you for your service and truly appreciate you, sincerely

And on CNN this morning the Disabled American Veterans praised him for those improvements.

The Republicans are listed at the link as well, but that was no surprise.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025028081

Probably shouldn't have posted the names of the Democrats, but I really was surprised.

For your service, General. You are a man of integrity and far to good to be amongst the scum in DC. Live well you deserve it!

...many capacities during your long, distinguished career. You have demonstrated your great patriotism once again today by choosing what is best for veterans over your career.

I wish you only the best in the future.

He had a lot of reservations about the Iraq War and tried to tell the Bush Administration they didn't have adequate troops for a post-occupation. He's a scapegoat and the GOP is getting their revenge for his criticism of their mishandling of the war. I'm disappointed Obama didn't stand up to critics and tell them if it wasn't for the war mongers adding so many more wounded troops to the VA rolls, we might not have the problems we're having.

I wish you were staying on. I know you will do fine things wherever you are. You will always be the man who told truth to the delusional Bush/Cheney regime.

an American hero! Thank you so much for your service to this country!

democrats always fold.

Thank you for your continuing service.

for your honesty and integrity.
You should not have had to leave.

--their own defunding of veterans.

for 40 yrs and seen how the GOP policies and adherence to a goal to privatize everything in sight have brought the VA to such a state. Shinseki made a huge positive difference the last few years working to improve services throughout the system. Had there been even a little support from the GOP, especially since Bush, to allow the needed increase in facilities, doctors and nurses, our Veterans wouldn't have been facing these long delays. The vast majority of employees of the VA are the most dedicated folks you could ever hope to have working for their Country and our Vets.

And it's a damn shame we have lost a good man at the top...but the writing was on the wall - the GOP/TP would continue their onslaught of fingering pointing without doing anything to address a decades old problem.

thank you for reminding a WHOLE lot of people that a commander who fails his soldiers must step down.

we would have a different military if this was the norm.

live well sir. that'll fix 'em.

You would have been the best to go "Jedi" on VA administrators.

Thank you for your service. I am sorry we didn't always deserve it.

they can't be happy with this. that and we don't force people out whenever a challenge comes up. makes us look weak

American hero.

General Eric Shinseki represents a very rare example - A true hero, a man of noble conviction,
courage and devotion to duty. He accepted responsibility for forces and situations beyond his
control and for people of bad character and devious intent whom he had the misfortune to inherit
when he took over the VA.

Without doubt, he performed great deeds in fixing many of the problems in the VA and
improving the overall delivery of health care to our Veterans.

As time passes and we compare today's VA to that which he started with, his accomplishments
will become even more evident.

The reasons for the VA's failings will also become clearer and will expose the role of a disinterested,
fractious and incompetent congress which failed to give Shinseki the tools he needed to manage his
organization and to attract the most skilled and diligent personnel.

It is a pity that General Shinseki could not stay on to clear out the crooked and incompetent administrators responsible
for the current mess. But, Washington politics being what they are, the greater good was served by his dignified resignation.

THANK YOU and THANK YOU again General Shinseki for what you were able to do for the VA and for America.