Ditto.
Sending snail mail tomorrow ref. same.Excellent! I hope that President Bush and the DOD are flooded with such letters of support.
Thanks. Glad to see your comment in my "My Comments" page. :^D
Posted on 12/19/2004 1:14:03 PM PST by ejdrapes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not personally sign his name on letters of condolence to families of troops killed in Iraq but instead had it done by a machine, an action lawmakers said on Sunday showed insensitivity and was inappropriate for leadership during war. Rumsfeld acknowledged that he had not signed the letters to family members of more than 1,000 U.S. troops killed in action and in a statement said he would now sign them in his own hand. "This issue of the secretary of Defense not personally signing the letters is just astounding to me and it does reflect how out of touch they are and how dismissive they are," Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "I have no confidence in Rumsfeld," Hagel added. Rumsfeld has been under strong fire from Democrats and some Republicans recently for appearing to brush off concerns of soldiers about the lack of protective equipment in Iraq. But President Bush's Chief of Staff Andrew Card emphasized White House support for Rumsfeld on Sunday. He "is doing a spectacular job, and the president has great confidence in him," Card told ABC's "This Week" program. Hagel noted that the families of the troops killed in Iraq have received letters signed by Bush. "My goodness, that is the least we can expect the secretary of Defense ... If the president can find the time to do that why can't the secretary of Defense?" said Hagel, who has been a sharp critic of the way Bush has handled the Iraq war. Democrat Jack Reed of Rhode Island said family members of those killed, "would like to think that at least for a moment the secretary thought about individually this young man or this young woman." "Again it shows a lack of leadership style appropriate for the military ... This goes to his capability to continue to serve." However, Republican Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, said that while "this is another area in which the secretary is being insensitive," the action did not "go to his leadership." AUTOPEN RETIRED "I wrote and approved the now more than 1,000 letters sent to family members and next of kin of each of the servicemen and women killed in military action," Rumsfeld said in a statement on Sunday." "While I have not individually signed each one, in the interest of ensuring expeditious contact with grieving family members, I have directed that in the future I sign each letter." Rumsfeld got himself into trouble earlier this month by appearing to brush off a soldier headed to Iraq who complained that military vehicles did not have sufficient armor and troops were having to piece together scraps of metal for extra protections. Some prominent Republicans including Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott have questioned his performance, leading the White House to come to his defense on Friday with a statement that he was "doing a great job." Among the critics, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar expressed concern on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that removing him from office could threaten national security. "He should be held accountable and he should stay in office," the Indiana Republican senator said. "The fact is a change of leadership in the Pentagon at this point might be as disruptive as trying to get someone in Homeland Defense," he added. Military families told the Stars and Stripes newspaper, which first carried the story, that the machine-signed letters reflected a lack of respect for the losses the families had suffered. "To me it's an insult, not only as someone who lost a loved one but also as someone who served in Iraq," Army Spc. Ivan Medina whose brother Irving was killed in Iraq this summer, told the newspaper.Lawmakers Chide Rumsfeld for Auto-Signed Sympathy Letters
Personally, I have now had it up to my ears with these previously GOP supporting hacks who rode the coat tails of our pres. to their own re-election bids. He was voted in, he can be replaced..............
The man is trying to run TWO WARS and these people are whining because he didn't sign a few letters. That's just so petty and juvenile .. it's beyond belief. It has nothing to do with caring or comprehension - the people who don't comprehend are those who have no conception what it takes to run the Pentagon in the first place.
When I see Rumsfeld "cozying up to the press" - HELL WILL HAVE FROZEN OVER.
If Jay Leno is your source for imformation about Rumsfeld - you looking in the wrong place for information.
Really, who gives a flying fig if the SOD signed the letter - unless you're a sig collector ..
I'd much more appreciate the CIC's sig., and story is these are all real.
Well .. since you came to FreeRepublic just today to whine about Rumsfeld - take a stinking hike.
That's interesting .. I've never heard that before. Can you point me to some evidence of that ..??
Donald Rumsfeld is doing a great job and I write you to give him 100% support.Ditto.
Sending snail mail tomorrow ref. same.
Does Bob Dole use an autopen?
I am sure the letters to tens of thousands of families in previous wars were all handsigned. Surely, the SecDef doesn't have things to do during war besides hand-signing tens of thousands of letters (are the media now recognizing that the toll in lives given in this war are just a tiny percentage of those seen in historically comparitive conflicts?)
"he didn't do it thinking that there were TV cameras ready to capture his heroic deeds."
Exactly .. and another good point.
These are the same nimrods who were chiding Bush for not visiting the wounded but were shut up when it turned out he was visiting them without the photo op.
This is nothing more than a collateral attack since Bush is teflon.
This is just to give the 9/10 armchair generals a chance to attack Bush. Republicans who are attacking, like McCain, are just posturing for 2008.
In looking over the one I got it looks like the signature may well have been PRINTED, which a huge step below the autopen when it comes to "personal".
Take a look at your own card and you'll see what I mean.
It's the "sending" and the "message", not the "signature".
Just doing one of those Viet Nam Veteran checks, and I couldn't find the website that discusses Robert McNamara's signing of condolence letters ~ or even the sending of same. Did anyone find it?
Your long-winded post convinces me of nothing, I have my opinion and you have yours, Rumsfeld did nothing I would disagree with.
Almost every member of the House and Senate uses an incoming mail scanner. If there's a bank check inside, a staffer opens it. If no check, it goes to the garbage.
Their greedy idle asses are on the line, not Rummy's.
Ditto.
Sending snail mail tomorrow ref. same.Excellent! I hope that President Bush and the DOD are flooded with such letters of support.
Thanks. Glad to see your comment in my "My Comments" page. :^D
LOL!
George Bush, Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson all hand-signed the letters to the families of Vietnam KIAs and they ran the entire government, led the country and took the blame when the wars went badly. Perhaps if Mr. Rumsfeld spent a bit less time showboating with the press, he'd be able to make the tiny sacrifice of signing letters to the families of those who made the ultimate sacrifice on his watch in a war he designed. This is the same Rumsfeld, by the way, who only retracted his statement that "draftees added nothing in Vietnam" (12,000 were killed there) only after Congress demanded it.
Hagel is a pissant who can only be heard in a band of pissants backed up by kazoos--
He's in the company of McCain, Lott, Collins, Durbin, Levin, Biden, Ceci Connally, Juan Williams and other noted military authorities.
John Fraud Kerry's Silver Star letter Version 3.0 was autopenned as the admiral had no memory of having signed it--does that invalidate it?
Clinton and his secdef Les Aspin denied--DENIED--armor to the Rangers in Mogadishu. . . .with grisly, but predictable results.
Those letters of condolence should have been signed in the perpetrators' blood.
McCain is angling for secdef in Hitlery's administration:
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