Fox ignores evidence supporting Obama's claim that reinforcements "did not arrive" under Bush
A FoxNews.com article headlined, "Rumsfeld cries foul on Obama claim troop requests for Afghanistan were denied," uncritically reported that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "said in his statement the White House should make public any such requests if they exist to back up the allegation" and repeated his comments that "[t]he president's assertion does a disservice to the truth and, in particular, to the thousands of men and women in uniform who have fought, served and sacrificed in Afghanistan." FoxNews.com ignored the fact that a request for additional troops from Gen. David McKiernen, then commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, went unfulfilled during the Bush administration and was granted by President Obama in March.
Fox uncritically repeats Rumsfeld criticism that Obama statement "does a disservice to the truth"
Fox News: Rumsfeld rejected the claim as a "bald misstatement." A FoxNews.com article reported: "Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday lashed out at President Obama for claiming the Bush administration rebuffed commanders' repeated requests for more troops in Afghanistan. In a rare break in his public silence since leaving the Pentagon, Rumsfeld rejected the claim as a 'bald misstatement' and 'disservice' that cannot go unanswered." The article continued:
"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. "I am not aware of a single request of that nature between 2001 and 2006." [FoxNews.com, 12/02/09]
Fox quotes Rumsefld: "The president's assertion does a disservice to the truth." The article also reported that "Rumsfeld said in his statement the White House should make public any such requests if they exist to back up the allegation" and quoted Rumsfeld's claim that "[t]he president's assertion does a disservice to the truth and, in particular, to the thousands of men and women in uniform who have fought, served and sacrificed in Afghanistan." The article continued: "He urged Congress to review the claim in the upcoming debate to 'determine exactly what requests were made, who made them, and where and why in the chain of command they were denied.' "
Adm. Mullen, others, cite troop request not met under Bush
Obama cited reinforcement requests that "did not arrive" under Bush In his December 1 speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, President Obama stated: "Commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly asked for support to deal with the reemergence of the Taliban, but these reinforcements did not arrive." [12/01/09]
Gibbs: Obama referenced 2008 request for troops that did not arrive under Bush. In the White House press briefing following the speech at West Point, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs stated that "what President Obama was talking about were additional resource requests that came in during 2008, which we've discussed in here." [White House press briefing, 12/2/09 (accessed via Nexis)]
Politifact calls Obama's statement true: Troop request "sat on desks" of Bush administration "for more than eight months" until "filled by President Obama." Referring to a similar statement Gibbs made in October, a PolitiFact.com article called Gibbs' statement "true" "that (a request for) an increase in troops sat on desks in this White House, including the vice president's, for more than eight months, a resource request filled by President Obama in March." PolitiFact.com reported:
Gibbs is referring here to a request for additional troops made by the previous top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, during President George W. Bush's final year in office.
McKiernan made his requests public in a press conference in September 2008 in Afghanistan, saying he needed at least three more combat brigades, in addition to the one Bush had promised in January. He said more soldiers and resources were needed to stabilize insurgencies in Afghanistan.
[...]
McKiernan said then that the Pentagon validated his formal request for additional troops, and that his request dated back to when he replaced his predecessor four months prior.
In a news briefing at the Pentagon on Oct. 1, 2008, McKiernan reiterated his call for more troops -- "the level of effort needs to be increased" -- and said he was hoping to see a shift of assets from Iraq to Afghanistan.
[...]
The public doesn't have access to McKiernan's formal request for more troops. But we know that he was talking about it publicly in September 2008, at least 4 1/2 months before the end of Bush's term. And McKiernan told reporters his request went back nearly to the start of his taking over as the top U.S. commander four months before that. That would suggest Gibbs' claim is correct that it had been sitting on desks in the White House for eight months. And so we rule his statement True. [PolitiFact.com, 10/22/09]
Adm. Mullen: Not enough troops in Afghanistan because of Iraq. In a December 2008 interview, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said of the conflict in Afghanistan: "We don't have enough troops there. I've said that over many months. And in that regard, we need to flow troops there as soon as they're available." Mullen added that "until we get to a point where we reduce that commitment [in Iraq], we won't have significant additional troops to add to Afghanistan." [PBS, 7/22/08]
Mullen: "We do what the president says, and that's what we did." In a December 2 hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) asked Mullen: "I wonder, Admiral, if -- are you aware of a request for reinforcements from 2001 to 2006 -- or 2008 that was not heeded? Can you tell the committee who made those requests? Can you tell the committee who in the chain of command denied those requests? Because I find the president's assertion, having been a part of a very strong bipartisan support for Afghanistan, really astonishing." Mullen responded: "Just in my tenure here, sir, that General McKiernan specifically had a fairly substantial request for upwards of 20,000 forces, which we couldn't meet because they just weren't there. They were in Iraq. I spoke out very early that Afghanistan had been underresourced and that, from my -- from where I lived, the heart of that was underresourced with military forces. We didn't have them, because they were pushed to Iraq. And we couldn't -- we really didn't have the flexibility to move them. That was a priority of a previous president. We do what the president says, and that's what we did." [Hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, 12/2/09 (accessed via Nexis)]
First off, we should have never taken our eyes off Afghanistan. We should have never starved the area of troops, but we did, and as a result, we didn't get bin Laden in Tora Bora when we could have!
Secondly, had we not invaded Iraq, we wouldn't have had this issue. And it's undeniable that we shouldn't have invaded Iraq. Ridding that nation of Saddam wasn't worth the loss of man and materiel.
Lastly, had we fought a good war in Iraq, with enough troops at the beginning, we likely wouldn't have been stuck there for so long, and we might would have had more troops to go to Afghanistan now!
Over all, the Bush Administration screwed us over.
Shouldn't your closing line have been:
> Overall, the bush Administration screwed us and the world over...? <
And neither is mmfa...or they would have answered Rumsfeld's challenge.
Rumsfeld's claim and the 2008 request have nothing in common...except for mmfa's contortions to confuse the issue.
That's the problem. FoxNews should have noted that despite Rumsfeld's claim, there is no doubt that Bush failed to act on troop increase requests.
FoxNews didn't.
Your distraction, as well as Rumsfeld's, doesn't change the facts.
Obama was talking about during the Bush Administration. Rumsfeld changed the parameters, then said that "The President's assertion does a disservice to the truth and, in particular, to the thousands of men and women in uniform who have fought, served and sacrificed in Afghanistan.”
But his assertion does nothing of the sort. Rumsfeld called it a "bold misstatement", but the bold misstatement was Rumsfeld's because Obama's statement didn't address Rumsfeld's term in office, did it?
MMFA is right. You're wrong. Again. As always.
Let's get real, if Bush had increased troop levels during his last few months in office, he would have been completely lambasted by the left. Now the left is criticizing him for NOT increasing troop levels??? Come on!! And I am absolutely sick and tired of our current president failing to take responsibility for anything. He acts like my 6 year old nephew who looks around when no one else is there in the room with him and says, "Who me? I didn't break that lamp. Someone else did it." I wish this president would grow up and man up for a change!
He appears more and more like Charley McCarthy...spitting out words that his Bergenesque handlers put in his mouth.
As usual, you missed the point. The nutjobs (i.e. Cheney) were all in a tizzy because Obama was "dithering" about the troop increase for a couple weeks, all the while conveniently forgetting how Bush dithered about the requested troop increase FOR YEARS.
And I am absolutely sick and tired of our current president failing to take responsibility for anything.
I thought Obama took all kinds of responsibility on his numerous apology tours.
As Rumsfeld said there was no requested increase between 2001 and 2006.
The Obama tactic of saying "For eight years yada yada yada Bush sucks" is an absolute lie.
Fail. Again.
The left would not have supported Bush increasing troops, but then again, they don't support Obama doing it either.
Being grown up requires one to take responsibility for one's on actions. It doesn't require one to take responsibility for the actions of others.
I wish Bush and company would "man up" and say they messed up and left a big mess for this President!!They have never apologized for anything ..they blamed Clinton for 9/11 after being in office 9 mos and given lots of intelligence info.The country gave Bush the benefit of the doubt anyway.Obama has been given nothing but disrespect,obstruction and attack from Bushies,Republicans,Conservatives,and Right wing media while the mainstrem media just let it happen.Every unfounded attack goes virtually unchallenged even when the facts say otherwise or they come too late to have any impact!!.Nobody has challenged the lying machines called Carl Rove,Dick Cheney ,Liz Cheney,Sarah Palin,Glenn Beck,Sean Hannity,Rush Limbaugh..not to mention all the lies from Republican Congressmen on almost everything.. esp healthcare!!Death panels,Acorn rigged the election,conspiracy theories,"he's not a citizen",socialism,communism,facism"he's a nazi,"he's Hitler","he's a racist" ,"he's a terrorist",he shouldn't speak to our children"..even a minister praying for and encouraging others to pray for the president to die!!!.Given all the attacks he gets why in the world should he not talk about what he was left with by Bush!!Too much of the population has not given him a chance at all to fix the mess and just want him to fail.They will attack any and every thing he does!!That is not Patriotism!!
"He acts like my 6 year old nephew who looks around when no one else is there in the room with him and says, "Who me? I didn't break that lamp. Someone else did it."
This case, its more like he walked into an already burning building that was empty because the people who set the fire had run away and left it burning. Obama did not abandon Afghanistan for Iraq, or ignore troop requests anymore than he was in charge when the economy started losing 700,000 jobs a month.
All this Republican shouting that "this president would grow up and man up for a change!" is in fact them trying to blame Obama for the problems their guys started. They've been saying "this is Obama's Economy" since March. Yet 9-11 was Clinton's fault in September. The only difference is that Obama didn't ignore the memo that read "Bush economic policies determined to strike inside the US." He manned up, supported Tarp, passed the stimulus, and got the economy growing and job losses down to 11,000. in just 10 months.
This is akin to your nephew gluing together the lamp his brother broke, and you are like a bad parent blaming him for cleaning up the mess he did not make.