Bush focused on defense for a second straight day, addressing a Veterans of Foreign Wars gathering in Michigan with retired Gen. Colin Powell, who likened problems with military readiness to a spreading cancer.

The nation "has the opportunity to redefine how war is fought and won in the future, and therefore we have the opportunity to redefine how the peace is kept," Bush said.

He said that as president he would assemble a task force of military leaders to come up with a "strategic plan for what the military ought to look like in the years to come."

"We know it's not going to look like the great American moment of Desert Storm and Desert Shield," Bush said. "A military of the future is not going to be that heavy, and it's not going to be that hard to move."

Powell contended the administration believes the nation must choose between emphasizing current readiness or adapting for new challenges.

"Well, that's not the choice," he said. "The answer is we have to invest in readiness; we have to buy the equipment we need in the future; we have to plan for the transformation of the armed forces in the 21st century."

The Clinton-Gore administration had failed to meet that challenge and allowed the military to flounder with declining enlistment and poor veterans benefits, Powell said.

"That little cancer starts to break out in the body of the armed forces," he said. "All of us have been through it recently and we don't want it to happen again."

Schwarzkopf concurred, saying Bush possessed the vision to anticipate post-Cold War security concerns.

"We've done a pretty lousy job of predicting who our next enemy is going to be" in the last century, he said. Referring to Bush, he added, "We have somebody who is gong to step up and who has clearly recognized the problem."

"Bush's running mate, Dick Cheney, was campaigning on the same subject at a Portland, Maine, company that makes valves for submarines.

Cheney said the administration has not invested enough in new military technology and equipment, leaving the nation at greater risk of both domestic and international terrorism. "Is the U.S. military better off than it was eight years ago? I don't think so," Cheney said.

Bush also told the veterans in Detroit, "Having a military ready to fight and win a war requires a military with high morale. I'm going to work with Congress to pay our troops more money. I will work with Congress to make sure our troops are better housed."

He also said anew that the United States "cannot substitute our military for difficult diplomatic missions. We can be peacemakers but we should not try to be peacekeepers all over the world."

A day earlier, wearing his blue American Legion cap from a post in Houston, Bush told veterans in Milwaukee, "Let's get something straight. These are not criticisms of the military. They are criticisms of the current commander in chief and the vice president for not providing the necessary leadership."

Proving his capability on national defense and diplomacy has been a key challenge for Bush, who also is convinced that the issue of military readiness is a weak spot for Democratic rival Al Gore.

But the issue stung him in July when, in his speech accepting the GOP presidential nomination, he misstated one fact when talking about Army readiness.

Bush said: "If called on by the commander in chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report ... 'Not ready for duty, sir."'

He also accuses Gore of proposing to shortchange the armed forces on funding and benefits. But the vice president's campaign released an economic plan Wednesday that would spend $100 billion of the projected budget surplus on the military over 10 years.

Bush would dedicate $45 billion of the surplus over the same period.

"Any argument that he comes up with that we are not dedicating the resources needed for our military men and women is just talk, pure rhetoric," said Kym Spell, a spokeswoman for Gore.