I certainly do. I myself would have not cared one way or another if I had been wounded, but autosigning the letters as Rumsfeld admitted to doing is indicative of a cavalier attitude toward the troops. I consider a form letter to be routine at best, and blood sacrifice is never routine.
If this were WWII and we had a half million KIA, would you insist he sign them all?
Your argument outlines an even better reason that Rumsfeld should have signed the letters personally. I thank God every day that we have NOT suffered half a million casualties in this war, and no Secretary of Defense would have willingly taken on the task of signing half a million casualty letters because he simply wouldn't have had time to do anything else. But a thousand? ONLY a thousand?
I believe having Rummy doing his job rather than handing out autographs is more important to the soldiers.
Part of the job of the Secretary of Defense is at least appearing to give a (expletive deleted) about whether the troops under his command live or die. Rumsfeld's "real" signature is not the issue here. Even just the appearance of a casual attitude and acceptance of casualties as evinced by using an autopen and/or a form letter is. If Donald Rumsfeld is genuinely too busy to devote 5 seconds to signing a letter that he volunteered to send, then the President needs to get him some help. Or better yet, send him packing.
Just my opinion.
Mine too.
Rummy's tenure is secure because he'll stay for spite. He could do everything wrong and be safe because no one in the WH or here at FR would want liberals to be happy about his departure.