Rumsfeld: military is 'clearly stressed'

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted Sunday the U.S. military "is clearly stressed," and recruitment has been falling short of expectations.

"It's clearly stressed, but they're performing brilliantly," Rumsfeld said on CNN's "Late Edition." "They're doing a fabulous job, and we're adjusting the incentives and the number of recruiters that are out."

However, Lt. Gen. Steven Blum has said recent recruiting goals have not been met, CNN reported.

"As it pertains to the National Guard, the Army National Guard in particular, we were woefully under-equipped before the war started," he told the House Armed Services Committee. "It's getting -- gets a little bit worse every day."

Rumsfeld said "a few" goals have not been met, but the situation is not critical: "Basically overall, recruiting and retention are roughly on track."

If a second war front should open, "it might take somewhat longer, it might be done in a slightly different way, but the estimates I get are that, basically, we're capable of performing the tasks that the president has assigned," Rumsfeld said.