Perhaps former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld might want to do some more research as he writes his memoirs about his service in the Bush administration.

Rumsfeld on Wednesday issued a rare statement disputing President Barack Obama's assertion in his West Point speech on Tuesday evening that the Bush administration rejected commanders' requests for additional troops for Afghanistan.

Calling Obama's claim a "bald misstatement," Rumsfeld indignantly declared: "I am not aware of a single request of that nature between 2001 and 2006."

Actually, U.S. commanders asked for an additional 2,000 Marines to help protect voters in Afghanistan's 2004 presidential and parliamentary elections. Rumsfeld approved the request, temporarily boosting the size of the U.S. force there at that time to about 15,000 troops.

A report issued last weekend by majority Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said that Rumsfeld refused U.S. commanders' requests in December 2001 for U.S. troops to deploy on the mountainous Afghan-Pakistan border to prevent Osama bin Laden and his closest followers from escaping into Pakistan.

Instead, Rumsfeld and his top commander for the region, Army Gen. Tommy Franks, chose to rely on U.S. air power, ragtag Afghan militias and Pakistan's ill-equipped paramilitary Frontier Corps.

"On or around December 16, two days after writing his will, bin Laden and an entourage of his bodyguards walked unmolested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan's unregulated tribal area. Most analysts say he is still there today," said the report. "Rumsfeld said at the time that he was concerned that too many U.S. troops in Afghanistan would create an anti-American backlash and fuel a widespread insurgency."

For the most part, however, U.S. commanders knew better than to ask Rumsfeld for additional troops, aware that the Bush administration's priority was the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, said a senior U.S. defense official who was involved in the Afghan war. He spoke to Nukes and Spooks on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

"It was clear that Iraq was the main effort and Afghanistan an economy of force mission," said the senior U.S. defense official. "Hence, resources would be allocated accordingly."

Asked about Rumsfeld's statement, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Obama had been referring to a request made in 2008 for additional troops, and he called on Rumsfeld to explain, "whether he thinks that the effort in Afghanistan was sufficiently resourced during his tenure as secretary of defense."

We here at Nukes and Spooks are all ears.