Word: rumsfelds
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...caution that troop levels could even rise if Iraqi security forces don't shape up as expected, if the insurgency grows more fierce or--of greatest concern--if civil strife evolves into full-fledged civil war. In fact, a senior Pentagon official tells TIME that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asked his planners last week to make sure they have a contingency option if things go very badly in Iraq next year...
...withdrawal could help the U.S. redeploy to fight terrorists elsewhere. Iraq has placed a particular strain on forces belonging to the Pentagon and the CIA. The U.S. Special Operations Command, which Rumsfeld has ordered to lead the Pentagon's part of the war on terrorism, has 88% of its 7,000-odd commandos deployed overseas assigned to the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. The CIA's clandestine service has only about 900 to 1,000 operatives, a large number of whom have rotated in and out of its Baghdad station, which has had as many as 500 spies and analysts...
...evolving role of U.S. troops in Iraq. Most important, though, as this process proceeds, the growing chorus of critics must keep oversight, not political gain, in sharp focus. Congress is not asking for a timetable for a withdrawal, nor should it. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld rightly contended that such a timetable would only set a concrete date for insurgents to outlast U.S. troop presence. Instead, this bill is really about redefining the rhetorical playing field. It is about taking the difficult first step sooner than in the past. Previous criticism of U.S. military actions abroad have come only after...
...giant step toward political self-sufficiency-a precondition, White House officials have said, for battling the increasingly lethal insurrection. The success of elections will have a direct effect on last week's debate: How many U.S. troops should be in Iraq and for how long? Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Fox News Sunday that after the elections, the U.S. hopes to drop troop levels from 160,000 to about 138,000, with a target of 100,000 by the end of 2006. Elsewhere, NBC News' Tim Russert grilled Rep. John Murtha-the Pennsylvania Democrat and decorated Vietnam War veteran whose...
...Murtha sounded an awful lot like Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who, according to high-ranking military officials, has seemed slightly annoyed that the war in Iraq has diverted resources from his real goal of "transforming" the military into a high-tech outfit that can scare the bejeezus out of China. Rumsfeld's Pentagon has refused to undertake the violent reordering of priorities-more special forces, more intelligence, zero boats-needed to fight a scruffy, labor-intensive struggle against an enemy that thrives in shadows in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Rumsfeld's relative indifference to the shooting war since...