Lack of Troops an Example of Shirking?

This article is rather long, but it has an interesting theory toward the end - that military claims of lack of sufficient troops for a given undertaking may be a from of shirking. Don't know if it applies in Iraq, but I am always reminded of the Union general (was it McClellan) who Lincoln couldn't get to budge from his camping trip on the Potomac to go and fight Lee. Mackubin Owens on Don Rumsfeld on National Review Online