Rumsfeld to personally sign all condolence letters (includes statement by Rumsfeld)

Stars and Stripes ^ | December 17, 2004 | Leo Shane III,

[Former Military Chick]

What does this say about the character of this man?

[California Patriot]

I fail to see any excuse for this.

But, better late than never.

[elhombrelibre]

Well, I think he should go to each funeral. After all, the man's got nothing better to do. Seriously, we could bog him down in the sad facts of death and take him away from the pursuit of victory. Ultimately, we'll lose more lives that way, but at least it won't look bad.

[Tarpaulin]

"What does this say about the character of this man?"

As always, Rummy is a life long bureaucrat with a heart.

Aside from Dubya, Rummy is my favorite person in this administration.

[PubliusEXMachina]

Pride goeth before the fall.

[1rudeboy]

He should deliver the news personally. And stay with the grieving family for a few days.

[vbmoneyspender]

The wolves are really out after Rumsfeld. He is the only one of Bush's cabinet appointees to actually take on the entrenched Washington bureaucracy in his department. Bush recognizes this. Unfortunately, some of the other people on our side don't.

[dts32041]

Good old dope smoking hackworth shows up again.

As tom Lantos said at least Admrial bota (sp) killed himself.

Hackworth is a perfumed prince who figure Ike was a great combat leader and it was cool to smoke dope with the troops, and then the going got tough he ran away to australia.

[JRandomFreeper]

If I buy the farm in a far-off field, I don't give a rat's pointy little tail whether or not SecDef signs the condolence letter to my family himself, or has a machine do it. It doesn't matter, to me, or to my children (also in uniform). A piece of paper doesn't make up for the loss, regardless of who signs it.

In the military, we use whatever means are available to perform the required task at minimum cost to life, blood, and treasure. Period.

/john

[AndyJackson]

I fail to see any excuse for this.

The man does have a day job, in case you forgot.

[SubMareener]

Hackworth said he objected to using the stamped signatures for promotion and commendation letters as well, but said not personally handling the condolence letters is a much more serious offense.

During the Second World War it was the unit commander who wrote the condolence letters. During the Korean, Cold, and Vietnam wars it was the same. Donald Rumsfeld is a kind and gracious man who decided to send these letters himself. He didn't have to do it.

Hackworth, despite his many medals, is not qualified to wipe Donald Rumsfeld's ass. Hackworth should go back to pushing pictures of Prisoner Abuse to the New York Times.

[oceanview]

I hear that Lott is now saying Rumsfeld should resign. is that right?

[dts32041]

Illinois resident Bette Sullivan, whose son John was killed in November 2003 while working as an Army mechanic in Iraq, was incensed when she, her son’s wife and her grandchildren received the exact same condolence letter with the apparently stamped signature

Wonder if she knows about Osama Obama's book deal and whether she will say anything about that.

BTW all you think Rumsfeld is a lousy SECDEF, I give you two words Cohen and Aspin.

[McGavin999]

The men and women in the front lines see it as well. They are deeply loyal to Rumsfeld and these attacks will backfire on those who are behind them.

Hack is a hack. That has to be the most disgusting man on the planet. He has tried to have his 15 minutes of fame on the backs of our men and women in uniform and they figured him out a lot faster then most of us did.

[oceanview]

as Rush was saying today, the media, and even many republicans in the senate - just love Cohen. He's an insider, a republican who crossed the lines to work for Clinton - no matter what he did, how run down the military was under his tenure, he is praised as a great SECDEF.

That the kind of sickness the Beltway mentality breeds. failure is success, what should be criticism and shame is turned into praise.

[JRandomFreeper]

I am also tired of the bashing that the Secretary is getting. He's the best SecDef that I've been honored to serve under.

I am SO glad that Aspin is gone....

/john

[uncbob]

Bush needs toi come out FORCEFULLY and say Runy is his man and staying on and that all these partisan won't matter

And he needs to TELL the GOP congress to GET WITH THE DAMN PROGRAM and the hell with McCain

[ozarkgirl]

Everyone loves to kick a dog when he's down. If Bush is behind him, I certainly hope there's a good reason and I trust that there is. If not...loyalty is important but our soldiers lives are so much more important.