Gen Dan Halutz as Chief of General Staff after the war, almost all the commanders who displayed such incompetence last summer remain in their positions.
Small wonder that, like another admired Army chief of staff, World War II hero Omar Bradley, Shinseki has had a second career as the head of the Veterans Administration.
It questions decisions such as the withdrawal of UN staff from the war zone in September 2008 after the Sri Lankan government warned it could no longer guarantee their safety.