Washington: US President Barack Obama`s administration made clear in July that it "wasn`t inclined" to send more combat troops to Afghanistan, a top Republican lawmaker said in an interview published on Thursday.
In comments denied by the Pentagon, Representative Buck McKeon, the senior House Armed Services Committee Republican, told a newspaper that focuses on the US Congress that the message came from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
McKeon told Roll Call that Gates told him during a July trip to Afghanistan that Obama "wasn`t inclined" to send more combat troops there as part of an overhauled strategy for winning the nearly eight-year-old war.
Gates spokesman Geoff Morrell cast doubt on the comments, saying "we do not believe that the secretary would have ever told him -- or anyone else for that matter -- that President Obama was disinclined to send forces to Afghanistan."
"That`s just not plausible because the issue of whether to send more forces is what will be discussed and debated once the president`s strategy review has been completed and both he and Secretary Gates have been very clear that they are still undecided on the way ahead in Afghanistan," said Morrell.
McKeon also said Gates also told him that Obama had "given instructions" to the top US military commanders in Afghanistan and in the region, Generals Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus, not to ask for too many more soldiers.
The defense secretary said Obama had told the generals to "scrub everything, to make sure they didn`t ask for more than they needed," McKeon said.
But McKeon said that when he asked McChrystal whether that sent "a chilling message" that he should ask for fewer troops than he thought he needed, the general replied "No, I`m honor-bound to ask for what I need."
Gates, not Obama, told McChrystal to "scrub" his forces to ensure that they were being used in the most efficient manner, said Morrell.
McKeon`s office did not return a request for comment.
Bureau Report
