WI: Eric Shinseki as Secretary of Defense under Bush the Younger?

[ersatz-york]

What if Eric Shinseki had been Bush 43's Secretary of Defense, rather than Donald Rumsfeld?

How differently conducted are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, (particularly the former) if they are conducted at all? Will we see half a million Coalition troops in Iraq, or was Shinseki's OTL suggestion indicative of his own beliefs as to the necessity of the Iraq invasion?

What has to happen in order for Shinseki to be SoD? Does Cheney need to be out of the picture?

EDIT: For clarification purposes, Shinseki must be SoD by 2002, so he can either be in the Cabinet from the start or replace Rumsfeld very early on for whatever reason. I am not talking about Shinseki becoming SoD after the Iraq invasion has already been set into motion.

 

[CalBear]

Uh...

Bush fired him as Army Chief of Staff for pointing out the Emperor had no clothes in 2003 leading up to the Iraq War.

Zero probably event.

 

[vl100butch]

Since I worked in the Pentagon at that time, the POD would have been getting rid of Rumsfeld pre-9/11, Shinseki was fairly obscure as Army Chief of Staff

 

[ersatz-york]

Uh...

Bush fired him as Army Chief of Staff for pointing out the Emperor had no clothes in 2003 leading up to the Iraq War.

Zero probably event.

OK, but surely they didn't have any serious problems beforehand?

Is there any possibility that he could get the SoD nod in 2001, before 9/11 happens?

 

[Laqueesha]

The thing I remember most about Shinseki was that he was the guy that introduced the army-wide black beret back in the day. It was the standard CONUS cover for in-garrison BDU and later ACU (until June 2011). But, now it's no longer the default.

 

[CalBear]

OK, but surely they didn't have any serious problems beforehand?

Is there any possibility that he could get the SoD nod in 2001, before 9/11 happens?

Bush was going to go to war with Iraq. Period. Dot.

That was one of his goals from the day he entered the White House. Stand in the way of that and you get trampled.

 

[sagittario]

The thing I remember most about Shinseki was that he was the guy that introduced the army-wide black beret back in the day. It was the standard CONUS cover for in-garrison BDU and later ACU. But, now it's no longer the default.

and spicy chicken noodle soup always available in his HQ. he was CoS til june 03. he had finished his 4 years, it was time to go. he was a big proponent of medium(motorized) forces; the idea being that something shooting over the back deck while withdrawing was better than armor loaded on ships still in the middle of the ocean. he was somewhat unorthodox as a division commander.