General: Appeals for More Troops Were Denied
WASHINGTON — Adding to criticism of the Bush administration's prosecution of the war in Iraq, a retired senior general who commanded an infantry division in the conflict said Monday that requests by commanders for more soldiers were repeatedly turned down.
"Many of us routinely asked for more troops," retired Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste said, contradicting statements by President Bush and his senior aides that the administration had given the military all the resources it had asked for.
"There simply aren't enough troops there to accomplish the task," said Batiste, who has previously called for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to resign. "It's a shell game we're playing in Iraq, and we've been doing it since day one. And we're still doing it today."
The general's remarks, echoed by two other retired soldiers Monday, came at a special hearing called by Democratic senators in what they said was a new initiative to increase oversight of the war effort.
Senior Republican lawmakers dismissed the hearing as a stunt orchestrated with November elections in mind.
A Pentagon spokesman declined to address Batiste's comments directly, instead pointing to past public statements by Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Rumsfeld had regularly consulted the senior military leadership on troop levels.
In April, when retired generals including Batiste called for Rumsfeld to resign, Pace said: "We had then [in Iraq invasion planning] and have now every opportunity to speak our minds, and if we do not, shame on us, because the opportunity is there."
Batiste's comments added fuel to questions about how the administration pursued its goals in Iraq and about the war's consequences.
Several newspapers, including The Times, reported Sunday that the nation's intelligence agencies had concluded that the Iraq war intensified the threat of global terrorism.
Administration officials responded that the articles on the war assessment contained in the classified National Intelligence Estimate did not represent the full report.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow continued to discount the news reports. "One thing that the reports do not say is that war in Iraq has made terrorism worse," Snow said.
The senior Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee called Monday for the document to be declassified, a request the administration is resisting.
