It’s good to know our troops are being watched over by true professionals.

Pentagon officials acknowledged Monday that Paul Bremer, the senior U.S. official in Iraq during the first year of the war, told Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in May 2004 that a far larger number of U.S. troops were needed to effectively fight the insurgency but his advice was rejected.

Larry Di Rita, a Rumsfeld spokesman, told reporters that Bremer made the recommendation in a memorandum and that it was the only time during his 13 months as head of the U.S. civilian occupation authority in Baghdad that he offered advice on troop levels.

”He on many (occasions) demurred when asked what the proper levels of forces were during the course of his tenure there,” and that was appropriate because troop levels were not his direct responsibility, Di Rita said.

Di Rita said later that Bremer was never asked by Rumsfeld or other officials but was asked a number of times in news interviews. Bremer told ABC’s ”Good Morning America,” in April 2004, for example, that he deferred on this matter to U.S. generals and that as far as he knew the generals believed they had enough troops.

So many people died because of our lack of preparation for the predictable insurgency, especially our careless assumption that light forces on the ground could get the job done. Why on earth is Rumsfeld still in office?