Rumsfeld Blasted For "Auto-Signing" Letters to Troop's Families

[thestickman]

Catholicvegan:

To you, if I am against the war, I don’t support the troops. Ironically, if I don’t want to send the soldiers into battle, then they’re more safe then if they were in battle.

Here’s a question I’ve yet to get an answer to: How can you support the troops when their lives now depend on successfully prosecuting their missions to win the very war you say you are against?

IMO, all of this nonsense regarding Rumsfeld’s signing/machine-signing of these letters is so much desperation via the left and the MSM. More evidence the left has no clue why they lost the House in the 90’s, the White House the last 2 cycles and the Senate in 2002, IMO.

 

[Digitonomy]

Scott_Lafrance:

In case you lost count, we have about 1,200 casualties over a period of 24 or so months, not quite 200,000.

You are referring to deaths, which are somewhere over 1300 now. “Casualties” generally include wounded, which are close to 10,000 by official count. Said official count does not include non-hostile injuries.

 

[Lilyofthevalley]

I just cannot believe that people are making such a big deal out of this. Have we become a nation of touchie-feely oversensitive weenies or what?

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The least the pompous wind bag can do is sign the letters to the families of those who made a sacrifice to preserve your free speech. I suppose it’s much more respectable to have these letters go out much the way the bills go out. I think not.

 

[Scott_Lafrance]

Lilyofthevalley:

I just cannot believe that people are making such a big deal out of this. Have we become a nation of touchie-feely oversensitive weenies or what?

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The least the pompous wind bag can do is sign the letters to the families of those who made a sacrifice to preserve your free speech. I suppose it’s much more respectable to have these letters go out much the way the bills go out. I think not.

Lily, if you saw my subsequent post, you would have noticed that I agree that he could have, and indeed should have signed the things. I mean, if the President has the time to, doesn’t he? My point is how some people are getting their panties in such a twist about it.

 

[gilliam]

Scott_Lafrance:

Lily, if you saw my subsequent post, you would have noticed that I agree that he could have, and indeed should have signed the things. I mean, if the President has the time to, doesn’t he? My point is how some people are getting their panties in such a twist about it.

I agree, but I don’t think he was the 1st to autosign such letters. Bill Cohen has avoided answering questions to him this week asking if he autosigned such letters.

 

[gilliam]

December 21, 2004
A Marine’s Father Speaks

People sometimes tell us in emails that we don’t know much about military matters. That’s true. But we have readers who do. This morning, the father of a Marine who is a special operations team leader wrote to offer his thoughts on the “autopen” controversy:

If [our son] had been killed, we would have been first informed by a visit - in dress blues - from a condolence team typically consisting of two Marines and one Navy Chaplain. We know many families who’ve received that knock on the door. No letter is required. No words are required. A simple peek thru the view hole in the door and the sight of dress blue blouses, white covers and white gloves tells you all you ever need to know. A letter of condolence from the SecDef is, honestly, not even worth opening. Families are much more interested in hearing from the men who served with their son and from their families. We share the constant knowledge and fear that it could be our door bell being rung. Sec. Rumsfeld doesn’t know our son. He’s a Lance Corporal. He directs a machine gun team. He is a vital link in the line that protects our way of life. He doesn’t fight for his country, he doesn’t fight for the SecDef, he doesn’t even fight for his mom and dad. He fights for the guys on either side of him and for his team. He fights to secure his objective of the moment, which he may or may not understand or agree with. Sec Rumsfeld doesn’t need to take time from his day to sign a form letter of condolence and he certainly doesn’t need to take time to figure out what the LCpl was doing when he was killed or what kind of a man he was. His job is to make sure the LCpl didn’t die in vain and that only as few LCpl’s as possible will have to die to end this war in a successful manner. Don’t get me wrong, we would appreciate the condolence letter from the SecDef, as well as one from the White House and from our Senator and Representative, from the Mayor and Governor. But none would bring back our son. And they are all form letters, signatures be damned. A letter from his 1stSgt, from the men we know in his unit would be a treasure and a comfort.

I don’t know what happens in other branches, or even other units. But in 2/4, I know the 1stSgt’s personally contact the surviving family with letters, emails and phone calls of condolence.

By the way, we know families of fallen Marines who’ve been flown to sites where President Bush was speaking. He met with them privately after his event, never any press coverage, and the families have said that - after being given an agenda for their time with the President and being told that he’s on a very tight schedule - Mr. Bush talked to every family member as long as they wanted to talk, never hurried anyone, cried with family, hugged everyone and they all felt like he had nothing else to do for the rest of the day but bring comfort to them. For that, George W. Bush has my eternal respect and gratitude. And there was NEVER one word of publicity surrounding any of these meetings with families. (I have pictures to dissuade doubters.)

Bottom line, we support Sec Rumsfeld. The people who are making a big deal about this have their heads up their collective a****. They need to have a serious priority check on what people in positions of responsibility should be doing with their time. They should also chat with some military families if they could figure out how to contact them.

powerlineblog.com/archives/008986.php

 

[BrianDay]

Here is something from a military family posted at Powerline. Granted, not everyone feels this way, but I suspect a vast majority of military families feel as this father does:

If [our son] had been killed, we would have been first informed by a visit - in dress blues - from a condolence team typically consisting of two Marines and one Navy Chaplain. We know many families who’ve received that knock on the door. No letter is required. No words are required. A simple peek thru the view hole in the door and the sight of dress blue blouses, white covers and white gloves tells you all you ever need to know. A letter of condolence from the SecDef is, honestly, not even worth opening. Families are much more interested in hearing from the men who served with their son and from their families. We share the constant knowledge and fear that it could be our door bell being rung. Sec. Rumsfeld doesn’t know our son. He’s a Lance Corporal. He directs a machine gun team. He is a vital link in the line that protects our way of life. He doesn’t fight for his country, he doesn’t fight for the SecDef, he doesn’t even fight for his mom and dad. He fights for the guys on either side of him and for his team. He fights to secure his objective of the moment, which he may or may not understand or agree with. Sec Rumsfeld doesn’t need to take time from his day to sign a form letter of condolence and he certainly doesn’t need to take time to figure out what the LCpl was doing when he was killed or what kind of a man he was. His job is to make sure the LCpl didn’t die in vain and that only as few LCpl’s as possible will have to die to end this war in a successful manner. Don’t get me wrong, we would appreciate the condolence letter from the SecDef, as well as one from the White House and from our Senator and Representative, from the Mayor and Governor. But none would bring back our son. And they are all form letters, signatures be damned. A letter from his 1stSgt, from the men we know in his unit would be a treasure and a comfort.

I don’t know what happens in other branches, or even other units. But in 2/4, I know the 1stSgt’s personally contact the surviving family with letters, emails and phone calls of condolence.

By the way, we know families of fallen Marines who’ve been flown to sites where President Bush was speaking. He met with them privately after his event, never any press coverage, and the families have said that - after being given an agenda for their time with the President and being told that he’s on a very tight schedule - Mr. Bush talked to every family member as long as they wanted to talk, never hurried anyone, cried with family, hugged everyone and they all felt like he had nothing else to do for the rest of the day but bring comfort to them. For that, George W. Bush has my eternal respect and gratitude. And there was NEVER one word of publicity surrounding any of these meetings with families. (I have pictures to dissuade doubters.)

Bottom line, we support Sec Rumsfeld. The people who are making a big deal about this have their heads up their collective a****. They need to have a serious priority check on what people in positions of responsibility should be doing with their time. They should also chat with some military families if they could figure out how to contact them.

 

[Trelow]

This whole thing reminds me of the condolence letter fiasco in Catch-22.

 

[gilliam]

Trelow:

This whole thing reminds me of the condolence letter fiasco in Catch-22.

It is meant to. That is what the Dems are pushing. Make this war into another Vietnam, with all the trappings.

 

[BLB_Oregon]

HagiaSophia:

And who raised you? the people making he ruckus are not the families it’s the MSM - the families ALL receive personal representative visits to express sympathy, show concern and offer asistance during such a tragic period.

The biggest hypocrisy of all is that many of the media would carve you up, eat up you and spit you out if there was some scandal revolving around your family with little or no regard for your privacy, your pain and your sorrow.

If none of the familes cared, who told anyone that the letters weren’t signed personally… Rumsfeld’s office? It only stands to reason that somebody that matters *did *care, or the media wouldn’t know. If you don’t know who is in the building, maybe you shouldn’t burn it down. You can make your point with better-chosen rhetoric.

Your point about the media is well-taken. Feeding voyeurism and blowing any and everything at of all proportion for ratings seem to be their leading “ethic.”

By the way, I hear the “Who raised you?” coming mostly from moms and grandmothers asking children if they don’t remember who taught them to refrain from name-calling (or whatever they’re not supposed to be doing). Please accept my apologies if your own mother never used that figure of speech. I did not mean to imply anything disparging about your mother! (But she didn’t allow you to call complete strangers “weenies”, did she?)

 

[gilliam]

BLB_Oregon:

If none of the familes cared, who told anyone that the letters weren’t signed personally… Rumsfeld’s office? It only stands to reason that somebody that matters *did *care, or the media wouldn’t know. If you don’t know who is in the building, maybe you shouldn’t burn it down. You can make your point with better-chosen rhetoric.

Your point about the media is well-taken. Feeding voyeurism and blowing any and everything at of all proportion for ratings seem to be their leading “ethic.”

By the way, I hear the “Who raised you?” coming mostly from moms and grandmothers asking children if they don’t remember who taught them to refrain from name-calling (or whatever they’re not supposed to be doing). Please accept my apologies if your own mother never used that figure of speech. I did not mean to imply anything disparging about your mother! (But she didn’t allow you to call complete strangers “weenies”, did she?)

People who have it in for Rummy in the DoD, people who like the old ways and think he is rocking the boat, that’s who!

Actually, I don’t know any of the families does care, except those who didn’t like him anyway. But he is changing his practice, so now you can love him.

 

[Jay74]

Clinton waged pre-emptive action and liberations wars against nations that were much less violent than the middle east, and much less of a threat to the US than Iraq was, and not only did liberals not complain, we didn’t hear such petty arguments from either side about what his cabinet did. Nor should we have (even a loser like Clinton is right sometimes, and his action to stop slaughter was right).

This is more motivated by hatred for Bush than by principle. Just like anti-war sentiments don’t drive Bush hatred, but anti-Bush hatred drives anti-war venom. Actually, anti-war isn’t accurate–they propose inaction in the face of genocide. Very sad.

Get over it people. You can’t decide what’s right based on who does it (ie, it’s okay when clinton does it and wrong when bush does the same), you have to decide what’s right and support who does it.

Blessings.

 

[dirtydog]

Fitz:

As a person with a daughter in the military, I don’t think the letter signed would make me any happier if she made the ultimate sacrfice. I heard talk radio doing this topic this morning, and a military veteran called in and said that he thought that a letter signed by that person’s immediate officer might be a personal touch that would really mean something, but a signed letter from the Secretary of Defense wouldn’t actually make that much difference to him. I tend to agree. If the person never met my loved one, then why would that be important?

EXACTLY. The SecDef letter is a formality. A letter from your commander to your loved ones means something. Not to say that the SecDef letter is worthless, but any commander worth his/her salt would have actually known the deceased to some extent. Read We Were Soldiers or watch the movie, and you’ll understand. In the end, we don’t fight for lofty ideals or our civilians back home. We fight for each other. That is why letters from other members of the unit and the commander mean so much more.

 

[HagiaSophia]

BLB_Oregon:

By the way, I hear the “Who raised you?” coming mostly from moms and grandmothers asking children if they don’t remember who taught them to refrain from name-calling (or whatever they’re not supposed to be doing). Please accept my apologies if your own mother never used that figure of speech. I did not mean to imply anything disparging about your mother! (But she didn’t allow you to call complete strangers “weenies”, did she?)

Since you didn’t address it to me the first time you used it, the apology belongs to someone else who I trust is still reading the thread. At any rate, I I thought it very rude - and no, it wasn’t used in my family.

 

[HagiaSophia]

dirtydog:

EXACTLY. The SecDef letter is a formality. A letter from your commander to your loved ones means something. Not to say that the SecDef letter is worthless, but any commander worth his/her salt would have actually known the deceased to some extent. Read We Were Soldiers or watch the movie, and you’ll understand. In the end, we don’t fight for lofty ideals or our civilians back home. We fight for each other. That is why letters from other members of the unit and the commander mean so much more.

One of the finest things about the President’s character is his going out of his way not to exploit the grief and pain of families. At Pendleton, after a public appearance and a press session, the press was dismissed and the President went to meet privately with 70 families of dead and wounded. He spent time with them, talking with them - no press allowed. No stories written. And it isn’t the sole time this has happened by members of the administration. I know of few men who take the public pillorying he does who wouldn’t use that camera to promote himself. The man has class and I am beginning to think he may be too classy for a certain portion of the population who is so used to the whining, the soapbox oratory and the playing to the press for everything, that it escapes them what gentility means.

 

[Xenos]

Good question about burning buildings. While some of his critics were hiding under desks, the secdef was pulling injured people out of the burning Pentagon. He and his wife visit Walter Reed on a regular basis.

He cares and people know it. Should he have signed the letters pesonally, yes. Wioll he from now on, yes.

Who told the public? Well, who asked a soldier to ask a question about Humvs that were all ready being fixed with armor (the job was in porcess and completed in that unit less than 24 hrs after the question was asked)? - and the soldier had to have known that. The hummer was not designed to be an armored personell carrier; it replaced the Jeep, for goodness sake!

If you write your congressman, or Dan Rather, a machine is gooing to sign the reply (if you get one).

The government used to send a certificate with with this kind of information. Signatures were printed.

The sacrifice of our troops is a big deal. This letter business is not.

The important thing is to pray that God grant that there be no more nned of these letters to worry about who signed them.

 

[La_Chiara]

HagiaSophia:

One of the finest things about the President’s character is his going out of his way not to exploit the grief and pain of families. At Pendleton, after a public appearance and a press session, the press was dismissed and the President went to meet privately with 70 families of dead and wounded. He spent time with them, talking with them - no press allowed. No stories written. And it isn’t the sole time this has happened by members of the administration. I know of few men who take the public pillorying he does who wouldn’t use that camera to promote himself. The man has class and I am beginning to think he may be too classy for a certain portion of the population who is so used to the whining, the soapbox oratory and the playing to the press for everything, that it escapes them what gentility means.

You go girl!

 

[HagiaSophia]

Xenos:

If you write your congressman, or Dan Rather, a machine is gooing to sign the reply (if you get one).

The government used to send a certificate with with this kind of information. Signatures were printed.

The sacrifice of our troops is a big deal. This letter business is not.

The important thing is to pray that God grant that there be no more nned of these letters to worry about who signed them.

During WWII you got a telegram; everyone on the block would see the Western Union guy with the hat come up to the door - they all knew - it was NEVER good news. I suppose people who get Christmas cards from the White House or the Pope think they are all individually signed???

 

[Catholic_Heart]

Why are so many of you rushing to defend Rumsfeld…No matter what he does or doesn’t do? Admit it…He was wrong not to have personally signed those letters, particularly since Prsident Bush…who is a a VERY busy man…sighns his.

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I am offended by the question of “What’s the big deal?” The “small” things, like a personally signed letter are always a big deal…It’s the little things like that that count int he long run. They show a person’s true character.

 

[Catholic_Heart]

Why are so many of you rushing to defend Rumsfeld…No matter what he does or doesn’t do? Admit it…He was wrong not to have personally signed those letters, particularly since Prsident Bush…who is a a VERY busy man…sighns his.

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I am offended by the question of “What’s the big deal?” The “small” things, like a personally signed letter are always a big deal…It’s the little things like that that count int he long run. They show a person’s true character.