WASHINGTON, Oct 22: The Pentagon and White House on Wednesday defended a private memorandum from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to top defense officials questioning progress in the war on terrorism and warning that the United States faced “a long, hard slog” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sharply diverging from more upbeat public comments, Rumsfeld wrote that it was not possible to transform the Defense Department quickly enough to effectively fight the anti-terrorism war.

Posing challenging questions to the military Joint Chiefs of Staff and others in the memo, dated Oct. 16 and seen by Reuters on Wednesday, Rumsfeld said the United States had no yardstick for measuring progress in the anti-terrorism war launched after September 2001 attacks on America.

The Pentagon and the White House said the memo, first reported in USA Today, properly raised issues for Pentagon leaders to consider.

“It is pretty clear the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog,” Rumsfeld wrote.

“My impression is that we have not yet made truly bold moves, although we have made many sensible, logical moves in the right direction, but are they enough?” Rumsfeld wrote, referring to the war on terrorism.

Rumsfeld challenged Pentagon leaders to consider and discuss troubling issues, including whether or not the United States was capturing or killing terrorists at a faster rate than they were being created by extremists who preach hatred of the West.

“Are we winning or losing the global war on terrorism? Does the US need to fashion a broad, integrated plan to stop the next generation of terrorists?” he asked.

“The US is putting relatively little effort into a long-range plan, but we are putting a great deal of effort into trying to stop terrorists. The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists’ costs of millions.”

Rumsfeld cited “mixed results” against the Al Qaeda guerrilla network blamed for the 2001 attacks, “reasonable progress tracking down top Iraqis” and “somewhat slower progress” in apprehending Taliban leaders in Afghanistan.

In Australia with US President George W. Bush, White House spokesman Scott McClellan defended Rumsfeld and said the memo was “exactly what a strong and capable secretary of defense, like Secretary Rumsfeld, should be doing.”

McClellan said the war on terrorism had yet to be won and more work was needed, but he said progress was being made.

“We appreciate the job the secretary of defense is doing, working with our military leaders, to make sure we are adapting to defeat the terrorists,” McClellan said.

Defense Department spokesman Larry Di Rita said the memo was not about Iraq or Afghanistan and was not meant to be a critique of the war on terrorism, but to challenge defense leaders to “look beyond the treetops” to long-range needs.

“It occurred to the secretary that it might be useful to sort of pull up a little bit and remind people that this is a global war on terror,” Di Rita told reporters.

Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the memo shows that Rumsfeld is “beginning to have a bit of an epiphany.”

“I’m not suggesting there’s a change in direction but there’s a little self-doubt setting in,” said Biden, calling the memo “the first bit of introspection that I’ve even whiffed coming out of the Defense Department.”

The memo was sent to: Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Myers; Vice Chairman Gen. Peter Pace; Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.—Reuters