With a Smile and a Joke, Rumsfeld Defends Iraq Memo

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 — Pressed about the leak of a memo in which he questioned progress in the war on terrorism, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld brushed aside questions today with a wry smile, saying that defense secretaries were not instructed, upon taking office, to "cage your brain and stop thinking."

This week newspapers published the memo, which Mr. Rumsfeld had sent to senior staff members. In it, the defense secretary, known for his relentless focus on positive achievements in the war on terror, used tough and unsparing language.

He said that the United States faced "a long, hard slog" in Afghanistan and Iraq; that the Pentagon might not be well-structured to defeat the terrorist threat and some new agency might be needed; and that results in the fight against Al Qaeda militants had been "mixed."

That brought serious questions from many in Congress, including some Republicans. A few people even asked if Mr. Rumsfeld's position was secure.

Mr. Rumsfeld has been facing sharp criticism over remarks on Islam by a high-ranking official in the Defense Department. Amid postwar problems in Iraq, the White House shifted added responsibility from the Pentagon to the office of the national security adviser.

Mr. Rumsfeld, primarily addressing the memo, made an effort today to defuse the criticism with humor. He cited a definition of "slog" that emphasized hitting an enemy hard. Asked about a more traditional definition that emphasized slow and messy going, he smiled and said, "I read the one I liked."

But he also made serious points, saying that his memo was meant to push Pentagon thinkers to do better.

Asked about his suggestion that a new institution might be needed to lead the fight on terrorism, he said that after talks with combatant commanders in Iraq, he had asked himself, "Gee, have we got our eyes up off the ground and across the horizon far enough?" There was a need to do "still better than we're doing," he said.

To the suggestion in the memo that the Pentagon had perhaps adapted too slowly to terrorist threats, he said, "Big institutions don't change fast," and "No one department of government can do it all."

He described a process of self-questioning meant to identify and close gaps in United States defenses. "Are we doing everything we can do?" and "Are there things that we've not arranged to do?"

Such questioning was something he had been doing "my entire life." Indeed, the steady flurry of memos Mr. Rumsfeld issues have been known for years as "snowflakes."

The latest memo inspired varied reaction. Some said it reflected candidly the harsh realities of fighting the war against terror, and that Mr. Rumsfeld was properly challenging his underlings to think creatively.

Others suggested that it showed a worrying loss of confidence from the Pentagon chief.

The Pentagon has been criticized for friction with other agencies, from the Treasury to the State Department, and Mr. Rumsfeld's successful war-fighting leadership has given way to questions, second-guessing, and bruising behind-the-scenes maneuvering.

But administration spokesmen have defended the memo. Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said in a stop in Australia with President Bush that it was "exactly what a strong and capable secretary of defense, like Secretary Rumsfeld, should be doing."

In Congress, reaction has fallen largely along partisan lines.

Senator George Allen, Republican of Virginia, said of the memo: "When I look at it, these questions he's asking are good critical questions.

"It strikes me that we are in the midst of this war on terrorism, whether in Afghanistan or whether in Iraq, that you do want to assess where you are. It's almost like a coach at halftime making adjustments."

But Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said the memo marked "the first bit of introspection that I've even whiffed" from Pentagon leaders and suggested that "there's a little self-doubt setting in."

And Wesley K. Clark, the retired general who is a Democratic presidential candidate, said that Mr. Rumsfeld was "only now acknowledging what we've known for some time — that this administration has no plan for Iraq and no long-term strategy for fighting terrorism."

Mr. Rumsfeld has also been criticized for dealing too timidly with the controversial remarks of Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, who has said in speeches to fellow evangelical Christians that the war on Muslim extremism is a war against "Satan" and that Allah is "an idol" and not a "real god."

Though the comments offended Muslims, Mr. Rumsfeld has defended the service record of the highly decorated three-star general and has yet to explicitly condemn his remarks. Belatedly, he opened an internal investigation, but only after he said General Boykin himself had requested it.

Some critics said Mr. Rumsfeld's failure to act more decisively was just the latest reflection of a political insensitivity that, with the Iraq war over and electioneering for 2004 already under way, could undercut his influence in Washington.

The matter proved an embarrassment to President Bush in his Asia tour; several Muslim clerics complained about it in a meeting in Indonesia. Mr. Bush said he later told them that General Boykin "didn't reflect my opinion."

But today, Mr. Rumsfeld seemed sanguine about the leak of the memo.

He said he had no intention to order an investigation of its source. He said that one of the four senior officials he had sent it to had been absent; an aide had distributed it for comment; and one recipient, he said, evidently tongue in cheek, "thought I'd issued it as a press release."

There has been one positive result, he said. At a breakfast meeting on Wednesday with congressmen of both parties, "the memo served as a very useful vehicle for discussing with them" problems and challenges in the war on terror.