WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- A retired U.S. general decided how many troops to send to Iraq and the State Department failed to train Iraqi police, said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
In what was billed as his last live interview in office, the outgoing defense secretary told radio host Laura Ingraham that the decision to send fewer than 200,000 troops into Iraq was that of retired Central Command Gen. Tommy Franks.
"We had a process whereby we were prepared to go up to between 400(000) and 500,000, they were already in train, and the general in charge decided that he was -- he had sufficient forces and decided to not go that high," Rumsfeld said. "The truth is it's a -- it's an art, not a science. There's no guidebook, mathematical calculation one can come to as to exactly what the right numbers might be."
The number troops was not an issue during the invasion, but the lack of troops in the immediate post-war period meant that government offices, museums and armories were looted and destroyed. The dearth of U.S. troops also hobbled counter-insurgent operations throughout 2004 and 2005, when there were insufficient numbers of troops to both clear insurgent strongholds and maintain security in their wake.
Rumsfeld also laid blame for Iraq's police problem at the feet of the State Department. The Defense Department took over training of Iraqi police, considered critical for security in any counterinsurgent operations, in 2005. It remains a problem as the force is believed to be compromised by sectarian militia fighters in their ranks.
"They didn't get the responsibility to train the police until very late, I think, last year, and that was the responsibility of the State Department," he said. "The police have been performing very unevenly, as you may have read."
Rumsfeld said he is mot surprised the war in Iraq is unpopular.
"No war is popular except in retrospect, after it's over and won," he said.
