Bremer Says He Sought Rise In U.S. Troop Strength in Iraq
"The American who served as the senior civilian administrator in Iraq says he complained to President Bush and other officials that far too few troops were committed to the occupation in the first year after Saddam Hussein was ousted.
In a new book, the official, L. Paul Bremer III, wrote that he had voiced his concerns personally to Mr. Bush and other administration officials, even writing a formal message in May 2004 to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. The private note stated that ''the deterioration of the security situation'' made it clear that ''we were trying to cover too many fronts with too few resources,'' Mr. Bremer wrote in the book.
''Even a year after liberation, the military still could not provide adequate protection for movements to and from Baghdad International Airport,'' Mr. Bremer recalled, and wrote that he had advised Mr. Rumsfeld to ''consider whether the coalition could deploy one or two additional divisions for up to a year.''
In the book, ''My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope'' (Simon & Schuster), Mr. Bremer wrote that he had never heard back from Mr. Rumsfeld.
On Monday, Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said Mr. Bush ''relies on a team of civilian and military and foreign policy advisers.'' But ultimately, ''the president believes that the decisions about our troop levels ought to be based on the recommendations of our military commanders who are on the ground in Iraq,'' Mr. McClellan said.
Mr. Bremer, a former Foreign Service officer, had the power of a viceroy as the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq from May 2003 to June 2004, but he was outside the military chain of command.
Mr. Rumsfeld's spokesman, Larry Di Rita, confirmed that Mr. Bremer wrote in May 2004 that more troops were needed in Iraq but said that a range of senior military officers did not agree with that assessment.
Mr. Di Rita dismissed Mr. Bremer's contention as providing ''an interesting historical asterisk or data point.''
Mr. Bremer also criticized Mr. Rumsfeld for ''pumping up'' the number of new Iraqi security forces to ''justify a drawdown of our forces.''"