Obama Aides Sell Afghan Plan to Congress
Pentagon Chief Robert Gates Warns of "Severe Consequences" of Failure; Clinton Says Plan is "Best Way to Protect Our Nation"
Gibbs: 'War with the Def-Sec you have'

by Mark Silva

It was Donald Rumsfeld, the former Secretary of Defense, who once told soldiers asking for more equipment: "You go to war with the Army you have.''

And it is Rumsfeld, who oversaw the Bush administration's invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, who now is chafing at President Barack Obama's contention that the Bush administration rebuffed commanders' repeated requests for more troops in Afghanistan.

"Such a bald misstatement, at least as it pertains to the period I served as secretary of defense, deserves a response," Rumsfeld said in a written statement today. "I am not aware of a single request of that nature between 2001 and 2006."

The Obama White House, for its part, is content to let Rumsfeld answer the question about whether the Bush administration adequately supported a war that now has exceeded eight years -- with Obama now ordering an additonal 30,000 troops, raising the deployment in Afghanistan to 98,000 by next summer.

The Bush administration had deployed about 32,000 to Afghanistan before Obama arrived at the White House.

"When I took office, we had just over 32,000 Americans serving in Afghanistan, compared to 160,000 in Iraq at the peak of the war,'' Obama said last night, in his nationally televised address from West Point announcing a troop surge -- and a date for the start of troop withdrawals, in July 2011. "Commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly asked for support to deal with the reemergence of the Taliban, but these reinforcements did not arrive. ''

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, was not biting on Rumsfeld's objections today in the daily press briefing.

"You go to war with the Secretary of Defense that you have,'' Gibbs said.

(The Obama White House also has the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, whom the Bush White House had at the end of its run -- and there was talk of boosting troops, after Rumsfeld left the Pentagon. Read on:)

(Former President George W. Bush, is pictured with outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in November 2006, above, after the GOP's "thumping'' in the midterm elections. Bush's first secretary was replaced by former CIA Director Robert Gates, who stayed on with the Obama administration. Photo by Gerald Herbert / )

I In April 2008, two months before assuming command, Gen. David McKiernan traveled to Afghanistan and concluded that there were not enough troops to counter the Taliban.

"There was a saying when I got there: If you're in Iraq and you need something, you ask for it," McKiernan said in an interview after being fired. "If you're in Afghanistan and you need it, you figure out how to do without it."

By late last summer, he decided to tell Bush's White House what he knew it did not want to hear: He needed 30,000 more troops.

The Bush administration did not act on McKiernan's request, instead attempting to convince NATO allies to contribute more troops.

New York Lawmakers Reject Gay Marriage Bill

The Senate decision Wednesday comes after months of delays and arm twisting of lawmakers sympathetic to the bill but representing conservative districts. It follows a referendum in Maine earlier this month that struck down a gay marriage law before it took effect.