Business School, a board and executive committee member of the Metals Service Center Institute, a board member of the Rochester-based Veterans Outreach Center, the president of the Rochester Regional Veterans Business Council, and chair of the Warrior Salute Advisory Board (a non-profit focused on treating veterans with PTSD). Batiste co-wrote the best-selling book, Cows in the Living Room: Developing an Effective Strategic Plan and Sustaining It. He is an active public speaker. Iraq War views In 2006, Batiste testified before the U.S. Senate where he criticized Donald H. Rumsfeld for a lack of leadership, And the failure of the Bush administration to develop a comprehensive strategy to deal with worldwide Islamic extremism with clearly defined goals. He said Rumsfeld "surrounded himself with like-minded, compliant subordinates who violated basic principles of war and sound military planning in the mission to change the regime in Iraq", and that the country "rushed to war without exhausting all diplomatic, political and economic options". Batiste said, on CBS's The Early Show: "...we went to war with a flawed plan that didn't account for the hard work to build the peace after we took down the regime. We also served under a secretary of defense who didn't understand leadership, who was abusive, who was arrogant, and who didn't build a strong team." Batiste also said: "I think the current administration repeatedly ignored sound military advice and counsel with respect to the war plans." Regarding the idea of a "war-czar" post in president Bush's U.S. government cabinet, Batiste commented: "Standing up a war czar is just throwing in another layer of bureaucracy. Excuse me, but we have a chain of command already and it's time for our leaders to step up and take charge." Batiste appeared on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer in April 2006. When asked about his proposed strategy for Iraq, he said, "Well, to begin with, I think we must complete the mission in Iraq. We have no option; we need to be successful and protect our strategic interests in the region; we need to set the Iraqi people up for self-reliance with their form of representative government that takes into account tribal, religious, and ethnic complexity that has always defined Iraq. The Brits had a difficult time with that in the '10s and '20s of the last century; nothing new at all. And we must set the people of Iraq up for self-reliance