Efforts to pare the American ground presence in Iraq, however, depend on two critical assumptions.

This critical assumption, and its origins, are worth examining further.

But the concept is problematic because it depends on two critical assumptions:

In the Defense Department's request, some critical assumptions are explained.

So the argument goes, without acknowledging that the critical assumption has already been made: "we" and "they" belong to fundamentally different communities.

Government pension plans also have much greater latitude to fiddle with such critical assumptions as how long they expect their workers to live after retirement.

The classic statistical theory first developed by Flory rested on two critical assumptions.

The model makes a few critical assumptions about the North and the South, as well as the relationship between the two.

Design tests: Design a test for every critical assumption.

There should be a retest schedule of every critical assumption.