Rumsfeld border duty will sharpen troops

WASHINGTON (AP) Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld assured members of Congress on Wednesday that using thousands of National Guard troops to help secure the U.S. border with Mexico will not detract from the troops' ability to perform other missions at home and abroad. He said it would sharpen their skills.

"The up to 6,000 Guardsmen and women proposed for this effort represent less than 2 percent of the total National Guard force of some 400,000, and for the most part they will be deployed during their twoor three-week active duty training period," he told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.

"As such this will not only not adversely affect America's ability to conduct the war on terror or respond to other domestic emergencies, it will actually provide useful real-life training for the members of the National Guard," he added.

In mostly amicable exchanges with Democratic panel members on the war in Iraq, Rumsfeld was pressed to discuss the prospects for bringing U.S. troops home. He said, as he has often in recent months, that it depends largely on political progress in Baghdad and continued progress in training and equipping Iraqi security forces.

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., told Rumsfeld he saw no convincing evidence that the administration's claims of progress in training Iraqi security forces are supported by the facts on the ground. He pressed Rumsfeld to say whether the American public could be assured of a major U.S. troop withdrawal by year's end.

"I can't promise it," Rumsfeld said, adding that he nonetheless is hopeful that it will happen.

Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who testified with Rumsfeld, was asked by Sen. Patrick Leahy, DVt., whether U.S. troops could withdraw completely from any of Iraq's 18 provinces within the next three months.

"No, sir," Pace replied.

There are now about 132,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

Rumsfeld said the White House budget office was still considering whether the beefedup border operation would require an immediate congressional appropriation of extra funds. The Department of Homeland Security, which is leading the border security program, has yet to tell the Pentagon exactly what missions it wants the Guard to perform.