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Decisions on troop levels in the American system of government are not made by any general or set of generals but by the civilian leadership of the war effort.
In addition, the generals expediting the war have been pressured not to request more troops because Rumsfeld is afraid it would make the army we have look weak, aside from him saying that the army we have is not the army we want.
Plus, General Tommy Franks told Rumsfeld we would need 250,000 troops to expedite this debacle. Rumsfeld assured him that a coalition of nations would join in to the tune of "tens of thousands".
In response to criticism that we don't have enough troops, Rusmfeld has responded that the criticism is "laughable" and that people making those comments have no idea what's going on in Iraq. He said this the same week that a MEU commanding officer said that the troops were severly depleted.
The generals are doing whatever they can to make Rumsfeld look right. They don't get to specifiy the number of troops, just what they do. Rumsfeld is entirely to blame for this.
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I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet
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