WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested on Friday the U.S. military was likely to scrap its current ``two-war'' battle plan, instead preparing to win one major conflict decisively while simultaneously repelling aggression elsewhere.
``I must say that I am increasingly comfortable with this force-sizing construct,'' he told reporters in discussing an ongoing study on how to rebuild and position the 1.4 million-member armed forces of the world's only superpower.(Read photo caption below)
Rumsfeld said he had made no final recommendation to President Bush, but felt increasingly that the ambitious current plan to smash two foes -- perhaps even occupy two enemy countries -- simultaneously was ``living a lie.''
At a Pentagon news conference, the secretary said the post Cold War-military had been strained by peacekeeping and other regional tasks for more than a decade and could not fulfill the current plan anyway.
``We are in a period, a historical period, where we can get this back in balance to the benefit of the force, to the benefit of modernization ... and be functioning at a risk level that is acceptable,'' he said.
Rumsfeld said that, under the new scenario, U.S. forces would still be able to win a second simultaneous conflict but would not be in a position ``to go all the way to the capital'' of an enemy country.
``WINNING DECISIVELY ON OUR TERMS''
``So what we are suggesting and what we're testing now is the idea of winning decisively on our terms anywhere in the world, being capable of defeating swiftly in another part of the world and simultaneously being able to conduct a series of smaller-scale contingencies'' such as peacekeeping, he said.
``That reduces the requirements substantially and gets you much closer to the force levels we have,'' the secretary added.
The current two-war plan was developed during the 1991 Gulf War when the U.S. military began preparing to win a potential second conflict with North Korea while it was fighting Iraqi forces.
Rumsfeld stressed that the new battle plan, which he called a ``force-construct and not a strategy,'' was not the so-called win-hold-win strategy used by the United States in World War Two, when American forces fought and won in Europe while holding off the Japanese military until they could win in the Pacific theater.
``Let me just say it one more time so there's no ambiguity about what I said,'' he stressed in outlining the new plan.
``In one (war) situation, you can win decisively on your terms, meaning do anything you want anywhere in the world,'' Rumsfeld said.
``And in the other situation, you can defeat, but you do not size to do anything you want -- meaning go to (the enemy's) capital, occupy,'' he added.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld gestures during a Pentagon news conference Friday, Aug. 17, 2001 where he talked about various topics including President Bush's announcement "in good time" of the next Joint Chiefs chairman. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)