Rumsfeld: Army Not 'Broken'

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday strongly rejected warnings in a Pentagon-contracted study that the Iraq war risks "breaking" the U.S. Army, and he said a recent decision to scale back U.S. troop levels in Iraq did not grow out of a need to relieve the strain on American ground forces.

"The force is not broken," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon press briefing yesterday. "I just can't imagine someone looking at the United States armed forces today and suggesting that they're close to breaking. That's just not the case."

On the contrary, Rumsfeld said, the U.S. military is "battle-hardened" and an "enormously capable force," as demonstrated to the world by its swift overthrow of governments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Such proven capability "ought to increase the deterrent rather than weaken it," he added.

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