Is that he's always asking questions; the man never seems to take "the way it's always been" or the conventional wisdom as the last word.
While in Iraq, he was asking questions again:
WASHINGTON (AP) Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he wants senior commanders in Iraq to consider whether the Pentagon underestimated how many U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces would be needed before a sovereign Iraqi government can take over next summer.Rumsfeld, who spent Saturday in Iraq, said he alone has raised doubts about whether the current goal of about 220,000 Iraqi security forces would be adequate, but he asked commanders to review their estimates. He was interviewed on the flight to Washington, arriving early Sunday after a weeklong trip that also included a stop in Afghanistan.
''I raised that question not because I have conviction that we need more, but because I worry that budgets will begin to get committed, and we may not know if we need more until sometime, for example, in February or March or April,'' he said. By then, he said, the money might not be available.
''I'm concerned that we might not have the option of increasing if, in fact, that proves to be necessary,'' he said.
It's a good question and I'm glad I'm he's asking it.
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