Rumsfeld's pre-quitting memo urged Iraq shift

updated 8:21 p.m. ET Dec. 2, 2006

WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the White House before he resigned last month the Bush administration's strategy in Iraq was not working and he proposed changes, including possible troop reductions, The New York Times reported Saturday.

"In my view it is time for a major adjustment. Clearly, what U.S. forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough," Rumsfeld said in the classified memo, dated Nov. 6. The Times posted a copy of the memo along with an article about it on its Web site.

The memo's authenticity was confirmed by NBC News and the Pentagon, which declined further comment.

Rumsfeld, as a planner and defender of President Bush's Iraq strategy since well before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, has been a leading public face of the war. His memo adds to the voices calling on Bush to make a significant shift in strategy as the White House, Pentagon and a congressionally created study group consider changes.

Rumsfeld outlined several options in the memo for policy changes, including reductions in U.S. forces and bases in Iraq as well as a recasting of the U.S. mission and goals there, but he endorsed no specific recommendations.

He said, however, a multiparty conference modeled after the 1995 Dayton, Ohio, talks that led to a peace agreement ending the Bosnian war was a "less-attractive" option, as was continuing on the current path.

The memo was dated a day before Democrats captured control of the Congress in midterm elections amid voter dissatisfaction over the Iraq war, and two days before Rumsfeld's resignation.

Rumsfeld remains in office pending Senate confirmation of former CIA Director Robert Gates, nominated by Bush to succeed him.

The study group, co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker, is expected to urge a gradual withdrawal of U.S. combat troops when it makes its report Wednesday.

There are about 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and more than 2,800 have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

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