Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld yesterday said the Pentagon was not considering a return of the military draft

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld yesterday said the Pentagon was not considering a return of the military draft and would ease troop shortages related to the war in Iraq and other deployments by turning over to civilians jobs now done by members of the armed forces. Rumsfeld's comments came in an answer to a question posed at a luncheon of the Newspaper Association of America and the American Society of Newspaper Editors. They came two days after Republican Sen. Charles Hagel of Nebraska told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the situation in Iraq might necessitate a return to conscription. Rumsfeld also was asked about a report that fewer gays and lesbians are being discharged from the armed services now that U.S. forces are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and whether that might lead to a revision in the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy on homosexuality. "I don't know that I've seen the report," Rumsfeld said, but added that "the [Defense] department is not reviewing 'Don't ask, Don't Tell."