Lawmakers Chide Rumsfeld for Auto-Signed Sympathy Letters

Reuters ^ | December 19, 2004 | Jackie Frank

[ejdrapes]

Lawmakers Chide Rumsfeld for Auto-Signed Sympathy Letters

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.

[MeekOneGOP]

bumpity! bumpity! bump! bump! bump!

[af_vet_rr]

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.

Exactly. The nerve of people to demand that Rumsfeld take 5 minutes out of every day to sign these letters. Some days there are so many troops killed, it might take him 10 minutes to sign the sympathy letters.

Sure, people could make the case that he could just wake up five minutes earlier or goto sleep five minutes later or take a few minutes out of his lunch or dinner, but they have no concept of just how little free time he has to begin with.

All sarcasm aside, while I think this not something to be attacking him over, I also see no reason why he couldn't take five minutes to sign the letters.

[First_Salute]

If Ike saw a letter and read it, and he had a reply, he would sign it.

At the end of World War II, several officers wrote thank you notes to the members of the military services, and some notes were signed by the sender, while others were signed on behalf of the sender.

Generally, a senior commanding officer, who reads a list of casualties and spots names that ring a bell, tries to send some notes. Yet, a few steps up the chain of command, most officers do write notes and sign the notes themselves.

Unfortunately, not all family survivors, get a note, and then, many do not get a signed note from some commander on high, and most people have not expected that.

Secretary Rumsfeld normally expects the officers to take care of their men and women, yet he may find some time to personally express his condolences and sign a few notes, which is a kindness that he has conveyed, previous to the current storm that has been whipped up by the extreme left in the liberal media, et al.

I would think that a father and mother, a wife, a brother or sister, would very much cherish a letter from a near-immediate superior, because that commander would have the most knowledge of what life was like and what had happened.

Generally, the commander who writes the family, is the commander who knew the lost man or woman; and sometimes, that Commander is the Chief.

[patriciaruth]

presumably putting at least 20min writing each one?

Are there 1,000 plus different letters out there autosigned by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld?

I was given the idea that there was one basic condolence letter that was autosigned.

Rather like the telegrams that were delivered in WWII and Vietnam War, but a bit more personal.

Does anyone have the text of the basic letter of condolence?

[Phsstpok]

As of December 17th there have been 17 soldiers from Hagel's Nebraska who have been killed in action. I want to see proof that he has personally writtne (and signed) letters to each of these families.

Rumsfeld and Bush have to deal with the 1,000+ families. Hagel only had to deal with 17. Prove to me that he isn't a complete hypocrite.

[virgil]

I don't think it should be Rumsfeld signing the letters, I think it should actually be president Bush.

[Jaded]

File this one under "oh fricken puhleeze". Is this the best the media can do?

[CyberAnt]

Well .. sarcasm is more effective if it's used as comedy instead of as a substitute for whining.

And .. of course .. as usual the slime media has not bothered to find out if this letter signing was STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE - BEFORE Rumsfeld. Who signed the letters for Kosovo and Bosnia; Somilia, etc.??

I have not seen one person ask that question of any Clinton pentagon person.

[Diddle E. Squat]

How many signed letters has that sorry rat bastard Hagel sent to the families of fallen troops? (excluding fundraising letters)

I'd love to see a 'Don't be a pompous backstabbing ass' freep of Hagel's office...

[demecleze]

If these letters arrive after the fact then he sure as heck should have signed them.

That is of course predicated on time not being a factor.

[jonrick46]

This is a catastrophe! I demand that from now on he hand write a condolence letter at least 500 words, preferable with a quill pen and real ink! He will have his letter proof read by someone with at least a PHD in English. I also demand that each letter be authenticated by Price Waterhouse Cooper as being authored by Rumsfeld with a special watermark seal of the Secretary of Defense emblem. I demand that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld hand deliver each letter to the next of kin and that he be accompanied with a twelve man marching drill team who will perform a 15 count manual of arms.

Finally, I demand that each next of kin receive a check of no less that one million dollars to compensate for the sacrifice of our fallen. Er, make that a billion! That's the ticket!

[jonrick46]

Yeah, that's the ticket! I demand that from now on that both President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld both hand write a condolence letter at least 500 words, preferable with a quill pen and real ink! I demand that each will have their letter proof read by someone with at least a PHD in English. I also demand that each letter be authenticated by Price Waterhouse Cooper as being authored by Rumsfeld and Bush. Each letter will bear a special watermark seal of the Secretary of Defense Emblem and the Presidential Seal. I demand that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush accompany each other to hand deliver each letter to the next of kin and that they be accompanied with a twelve man marching drill team who will perform a 15 count manual of arms.

Finally, I demand that on this occasion that each next of kin will receive a check of no less that one million dollars to compensate for the sacrifice of their fallen. Er, make that a billion! That's the ticket!

[llevrok]

The problem is that the Senate is loaded with RINO's and that is also the bull pen for lack luster presidential candidates

The first step is to get some real repub senators in there who are willing to lead and not perpetually campaign.

[Grampa Dave]

Rummy Phobia sufferer

It is obvious that the elitist left wing lunatics in politics and the media are suffering from severe hyper reactive cases of Rummy Phobia, the new disgusting mental disorder of the lunatic left.

Rummy Phobia appears to be a secondary mental illness to the Hate GW Syndrome suffered by millions of libs from 2000 to 2004 where GW was hated and blamed for everything that happened. Now, they blame Rummy for everything that has or has not happened in the Iraqi War.

Examples of Rummy Phobia can be seen on most of the current Rummy Phobia threads on Free Republic. The Moby Trolls of the left, who claim to be the greatest conservatives ever, leave examples of Rummy Phobia all over these Rummy Phobia threads.

Those inflicted by Rummy Phobia froth at the mouth, smell and behave like rabid skunks as they try to blame everything on Rummy while calling for his head.

[af_vet_rr]

I have not seen one person ask that question of any Clinton pentagon person.

The reason why is because nobody expected that from Clinton's administration. People expect more from this administration (and rightly so, as President Bush has proven).

It comes down to Rumsfeld was just being insensitive and this is not a new issue - I remember it was brought up a while back. Who really cares if the guy's insensivite or not? As you said, this isn't SOP (to sign the letters).

Yeah, there is really no reason why Rumsfeld can't sign the letters, but then again, there is no clear reason why he should. People make this out to be some kind of "showing respect to the family" issue, but Rumsfeld certainly isn't disrepecting them by not signing them by hand.

[Recovering_Democrat]

"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.

SCREW YOU CHUCK HAGEL!

I swear, this guy is worse than John McLame. At LEAST McLame went out on the campaign trail and endorsed Bush. This smarmy, smug, self-indulgent Hagel runs like a lemming to any camera he can for the express purpose of ripping into his own President's administration!!

Chuck, they say you wanna run for Prez in '08. Don't even bother trying to get my vote. You're a turncoat.

You don't have to agree with Bush 100% of the time. I don't. When I disagreed, I wrote to him and told him. Bottom line? You got problems, you take them to the MAN. By running to a tattletale press, you make yourself a pantywaist. And this Recovering_Democrat will not vote for a pantywaist for President.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Chuck Hagel could not Shine Don Rumsfeld's shoes.

Exactly. In fact, from what I've seen of up-CHUCK Haggis, he isn't worthy to lick the mud off of Rumsfeld's Iraqi-soiled combat boots.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Bunk. Autosigning is not an indicator of insensitivity.

And no, if there were "autosigning" in other administrations...and I'm sure there WAS, there would not be an outrage by us long-time FREEPers (notice you've only been here 6 months).

For one thing, it wouldn't even be REPORTED that auto-signing was happening in a Clinton administration.

Rumsfeld has deftly handled two wars and the revitalization of a military that was decimated after eight years of a Sink Stainer cutting and slashing. He deserves to stay.

[asgardshill]

The amount of time I have been on FreeRepublic is irrelevant. Publicly noting somebody's signup date is the rhetorical and intellectual equivalent of saying "you're a doodyhead" in debate. (Actually, it takes a little more wit to actually enunciate the word "doodyhead" since it isn't in common usage any more). If you really think I am a newbie troll, then go whine to the mods and get me banned from the site. I'm waiting.

For one thing, it wouldn't even be REPORTED that auto-signing was happening in a Clinton administration.

I really don't care what they did in the Clinton administration. That is history, and dark history at that. But Donald Rumsfeld is supposed to be a better man than Les Aspin or the other tomato cans that Clinton appointed to the post.

Rumsfeld has deftly handled two wars and the revitalization of a military that was decimated after eight years of a Sink Stainer cutting and slashing. He deserves to stay.

I said in a single sentence in a single post that Donald Rumsfeld "should go", a statement I have since retracted. However, there is nothing that will prevent me from commenting negatively on the basic cheapness and tackiness of sending a "Dear (fill in the blank)" form letter to families who have lost loved ones. And if you can't see how such a letter could be interpreted as insulting and degrading by a recipient who just lost a part of their heart's blood, then we have nothing further to discuss.