Frist says he probably would have put more troops into Iraq

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Sunday he still sees the necessity of war in Iraq despite the lack of weapons of mass destruction but probably would have placed more U.S. troops there.

President Bush long has maintained that commanders on the ground have determined troop levels. Critics of the administration’s conduct of the war maintain that far too few soldiers were deployed after the U.S. decided to invade Iraq in March 2003.

“In hindsight, 20-20 today, I would have probably put more troops in, if the decision had been up to me,” Frist told on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Frist, R-Tenn., said that, at the time, he was willing to leave the decision to the top commanders in Iraq.

“Looking back today, I would ask that question: ‘If we’d had more troops, would it be a little bit different today?'” said Frist, who is considering running for the White House in 2008.

A recent study for the Pentagon said the Army has been overextended by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and may not be able to retain and recruit enough troops to defeat the insurgency in Iraq. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld discounted the study’s assertion and said U.S. forces were capable of completing their mission.

Sen. Joe Biden, another presidential hopeful, said commanders in Iraq have complained abut troop levels during each of his six trips to the region.

“They’re overstretched. They’ve been overstretched from the time they walked in,” Biden, D-Del., told CNN’s “Late Edition.”