Rumsfeld said the US-led coalitions would win in Afghanistan and Iraq, but not without "a long, hard slog".

He wrote that the United States "has made reasonable progress in capturing or killing the top 55 Iraqis" but has made "somewhat slower progress" tracking down top Taliban leaders who sheltered al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

"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.

The memo, dated Oct 16 and first reported by USA Today yesterday, offered a much more stark assessment of the global war on terrorism than contained in Rumsfeld's public statements.

Rumsfeld's spokesman, Larry di Rita, told reporters yesterday the memo was meant to raise "big questions that deserve big thinking" and preserve a "constant sense of urgency" about where the war on terror is heading.

"Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror," Rumsfeld wrote.

"Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?" Madrassas are Islamic religious schools.

Rumsfeld and other US officials say some schools run by radical groups indoctrinate students to join in an anti-American holy war.

Rumsfeld's memo raises the possibility of creating "a private foundation to entice radical madrassas to a more moderate course" and questions how to block the funding of the extremist schools.

- Nampa-AP

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