Adm. Michael Mullen told a House committee Wednesday that Gen. David McKiernan, who led U.S. troops in Afghanistan between 2008 and this year, had asked for 20,000 troops for the effort but was rebuffed.
“We didn’t have them because they were pushed to Iraq,” the four-star admiral said during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in response to a question from Indiana Republican Rep. Mike Pence. “That was the priority of the president.”
Mullen did not address whether commanders submitted unfulfilled troop requests under Rumsfeld’s tenure.
But that’s consistent with what the Obama told the nation at West Point Tuesday night – and what White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters today – that the speech was referring to the Pentagon’s choices after Rumsfeld left office.
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