"There will be here an Iraqi solution, not an American solution or a coalition solution, but an Iraqi solution," he said.
Later, he continued the thought: "Our task is not to do it for them; they have to do it themselves. We don't want to create a dependency on their part, being dependent on us. We want to create an independency on their part, a strength and an ability to go forward."
Despite the controversy stirred up this month at a base in Kuwait, when a soldier questioned Rumsfeld about the lack of armor on some vehicles headed to Iraq -- a question suggested to the soldier by a newspaper reporter -- Rumsfeld fielded questions from soldiers again.
When one soldier said her impression of U.S. news media's coverage of the war was that it overemphasized the negative aspects of what was happening in Iraq, Rumsfeld quipped: "That clearly was a question not planted by the media."
Rumsfeld was pressed by another soldier to talk about troop levels, and whether he thought the Army was overstretched by frequently being dispersed across the globe.
"The stress on the force is clear," Rumsfeld said, citing the successive deployments to Kosovo, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. He said the Defense Department's new budget would reflect an increase in Army capabilities. "There is a full recognition of the importance of enlarging the size of the Army."
Rumsfeld took time to greet soldiers personally, shaking hands and putting his arms around them. Before he posed with dozens of soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment -- dressed in full battle gear -- he said loudly: "I am proud to stand in the middle of that crowd."
According to the Associated Press, Rumsfeld earlier leaned over Sgt. Chris Scott, who was lying in bed under a military blanket at a combat hospital in Mosul, to help him place the Purple Heart over his right breast and to pose for photographs.
In Fallujah, where three Marines were killed hours before Rumsfeld's visit, he told a gathering that they were doing "noble work," the AP reported.
Rumsfeld maintained an upbeat tone, though he appeared to acknowledge that the battle for Iraq could be far from over.
"Our armed forces are capable of defeating other armed forces," he said. In Iraq, "the test and the task is more a test of wills, a test of staying power."
