WASHINGTON, 31 March 2003 — Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly rejected advice from Pentagon planners that substantially more troops and armor would be needed to fight a war in Iraq, New Yorker Magazine reported.
In an article for its April 7 edition, which goes on sale today, the weekly said Rumsfeld insisted at least six times in the run-up to the conflict that the proposed number of ground troops be sharply reduced and got his way. “He thought he knew better. He was the decision-maker at every turn,” the article quoted an unidentified senior Pentagon planner as saying. “This is the mess Rummy put himself in because he didn’t want a heavy footprint on the ground.”
It also said Rumsfeld had overruled advice from war commander Gen. Tommy Franks to delay the invasion until troops denied access through Turkey could be brought in by another route and miscalculated the level of Iraqi resistance.
“They’ve got no resources. He was so focused on proving his point — that the Iraqis were going to fall apart,” the article, by veteran journalist Seymour Hersh, cited an unnamed former high-level intelligence official as saying.
A spokesman at the Pentagon declined to comment on the article. However, Gen. Franks denied that he had been overruled by Rumsfeld on preparations for the campaign and the timing of its start. “No one has driven the timing of this operation except the operational commander,” Franks told journalists.
He said a decision was made to launch the ground war within 24 hours of the start of an air campaign in the early morning of March 20 in order to head off the feared destruction by Iraqi troops of the country’s southern oil wells.
“That decision was made by me, not influenced by anyone else,” he said.
Asked about the reported difference of opinion with Rumsfeld, Franks replied: “Since I don’t agree with the assertion I can’t comment on it.”
But he said he had not sought additional troops before the start of the ground war and cautioned that “there are very few people who know the truth about the way this plan was put together....”
“Those who would find a wedge between the various leaders who have been party to this will likely not be able to do so because this has been worked and studied and, as we say, iterated over a long period of time.
“It’s chief characteristic is flexibility, adaptability.”
Rumsfeld is known to have a difficult relationship with the army’s upper echelons while he commands strong loyalty from US special operations forces, a key component in the war.
