Rumsfeld: Obama Lied About Afghanistan Troop Requests

In contrast to Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld has remained largely out of the public eye since resigning as secretary of defense under President Bush. But today Rumsfeld broke his silence, blasting Obama for an egregious lie in the president's speech at West Point last night.

"'Such a bald misstatement, at least as it pertains to the period I served as secretary of defense, deserves a response,' Rumsfeld said in a written statement. 'I am not aware of a single request of that nature between 2001 and 2006.'

...

In his speech, Obama gave a detailed history of the Afghanistan war starting with the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. He argued that the Iraq war drew needed resources away from Afghanistan, allowing the situation to deteriorate since 2003.

'Throughout this period, our troop levels in Afghanistan remained a fraction of what they were in Iraq,' Obama said. 'Commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly asked for support to deal with the reemergence of the Taliban, but these reinforcements did not arrive.'"

Rumsfeld went onto say that Obama should release any such requests or admit he fibbed. Given how willing Obama has been to release sensitive national security documents in the past on topics like torture, surely this won't be a problem. Unless, of course, he's lying.