Bremer wanted more troops

When TIME recently reported that battalion level commanders had asked for more troops, the implication was made by the Pentagon and top brass that those requests were common and often not enacted because higher ranking brass viewed the deployment as counterproductive.

With this A.P. report that none other than Proconsul Paul Bremer wanted more troops, it is clear that the Bush administration was more interested in winning in 2004 than winning in Iraq. The story reads (in part):

Bremer said in an NBC News interview Sunday that his memo to Rumsfeld suggested half a million troops were needed — more than three times the number there at the time. Bremer served as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority from May 2003, shortly after the fall of Baghdad, until June 2004 when Iraq's sovereignty was restored.

Di Rita said that after Bremer made his recommendation, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, Gen. Richard B. Myers, consulted with senior military commanders to consider changes. They then told Rumsfeld that they preferred to stay at the existing level of 18 brigades, or about 145,000 troops, Di Rita said.

"And that was the end of the matter," the spokesman added.