Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has confirmed that shortly before L. Paul Bremer III left his post as top US official in Iraq in June 2004, Bremer sent him a memo calling for more troops to confront the insurgency. The issue has come up now since Bremer is on a round of media sessions, following release of his new book in which he says he made repeated attempts to get the US to up the number of troops. Rumsfeld told reporters late last week that he considered it a “reasonable proposal from a reasonable person.” However, he said that he and the Joint Chiefs and field commanders did not agree with Bremer. Current JCS Chairman, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, added, “We did a very thorough analysis” of Bremer’s recommendation.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.