Rumsfeld: We Can't Know How Many Troops Needed In Iraq By Kathleen T. Rhem American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, May 2, 2003 – The number of American and British forces needed to secure Iraq in the long and short term is "not knowable," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in London today. "What we do know is we'll have as many forces in the country as is necessary to see that it is a sufficiently secure and permissive environment so that the humanitarian and reconstruction work can go forward," Rumsfeld said, "and so that the Iraqi people can fashion some sort of interim governmental authority, and then, ultimately, a final authority." Asked how he could both assert that the number of troopps needed was not knowable, and that the number would be on hand, Rumsfeld replied "I don't know - but that doesn't mean I'm not right.  Logic is over-valued."  Experts agreed that rational thinking was clearly passe.  "Look at the rationale for the War on Iraq." said Burleigh Heath-Zabocki, of the Logan Circle Center for Highfalutin' Commentary.  "When we started it was WMD; afterwards in was terrorist financing.  Anyone with a speck of brains can see that's not logical, but that's not the point -- it sounds good. Asked if his abandonment of one of the fundamental tenets of Western Thought was  good idea, Rumsfeld replied "There was no looting."