General Eric Shinseki, who as Army chief of staff was forced into retirement after warning the Bush administration to send more troops into Iraq, is to be tapped for a top role in the administration of president-elect Barack Obama, the New York Times reported Sunday.
Shinseki is to be named secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department on Sunday, when Obama has scheduled a special press conference on the 67th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor invasion by the Japanese, dpa reported.
The Times quoted two Democratic officials as confirming the decision.
On the eve of the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, Shinseki, as Army chief of staff, clashed with then-Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld's vision of a smaller, leaner military for the invasion.
Shinseki told Congress that the US should send hundreds of thousands to win the war and stabilize the country, because he anticipated "ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems."
Rumsfeld quickly dismissed the claim. After Rumsfeld's force of 140,000 toppled the regime, he named Shinseki's replacement one year before the general was slated to retire.
But Shinseki's worst predictions came true as thousands of US troops fell and ethnic war broke out between the Shiite and Sunni Muslim factions.
As the situation steadily deteriorated, US President George W Bush was forced to send in another 20,000 troops in 2007.
By then, Rumsfeld was already gone, stepping down after Democrats rode to a majority in Congress on growing public discontent with conduct of the war.