Flexible Thinking

As much as Rumsfeld has pissed me off with his glib proclamation and impervious-to-blame attitude, you have to realize that the current “controversy” is absolutely idiotic.

It would seem that sympathy letters to families are signed by an autopen machine, meaning he didn’t hand sign every letter that went out to the family of a slain soldier.

And?

I mean, think about it… Are we actually expecting the Secretary of Defense to stop whatever it is he’s doing and sign letters? Instead of prosecuting a war in two theatres, he can just sit there writing sympathy notes, and making sure they have that “personal touch.”

Of course, all the major news publications ran with this idiotic story this morning and over the weekend, and all echoed the following piece of brilliant commentary from Senator Evan Bayh (R. Lalaland):

”My goodness, that’s the least that we could expect of the secretary of defense, is having some personal attention paid by him,”

No, the least we could expect is nothing, and it’s appropriate; the man has other things to worry about other than a personal signature. Jack Reed (R. Lalaland):

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), a West Point graduate, said Rumsfeld’s failure to sign displayed ”his lack of leadership styles that are appropriate for the military”

What?

You know, some of my readers called my attacks on Rumsfeld last week a witch hunt. At least I can defend my statements as legitimate criticism. These have no basis in fact whatsoever. We’re turning the lack of Rumsfeld’s signature on a letter into a referendum on his leadership of the military? Sounds like a couple of Senators (not to mention the ones that weren’t quoted by the AP) and print publications are looking to dogpile if you ask me.

(source)

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  • balbulican

    Personally, I’d consider a Rumsfeld decision to literally hand-sign every single letter of condolence as:
    a) an absurd and almost criminal waste of a senior official’s time, and;

    b) a transparent piece of theatrical grandstanding.

    But there’s no chance he would ever do something as silly as that.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    Well, he’s already decided to give in and hand-sign each letter. Glad to know he’s spending his time on important things now. :roll:

  • http://members.cox.net/truth-seeker Chet

    Sounds like a couple of Senators (not to mention the ones that weren’t quoted by the AP) and print publications are looking to dogpile if you ask me.

    Been going on for a while, long before the humvee armor thing, man.

    This poor guy made enemies on both sides of the aisle just by proposing changes to the system. And these enemies have been looking for every piddly excuse to oust him and get rid of him pretty much since day one.

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com/ RKB

    I mean, think about it… Are we actually expecting the Secretary of Defense to stop whatever it is he’s doing and sign letters? Instead of prosecuting a war in two theatres, he can just sit there writing sympathy notes, and making sure they have that “personal touch.

    During the past two years, there have been over 1,300 U.S. casualties, or little more than two per day. It’s not as if he needs to sign these letters once or twice a year, and there’s a massive stack of them sitting on his desk. I would certainly hope that even if they came into his office once a week that he would be able to carve out five minutes from his busy schedule to be able to personally recognize the 15-30 fallen soldiers from that week.

    Col. David Hackworth wrote about this last month (source), and I think the following quote is a compelling reason why he SHOULD be doing this by hand, why he SHOULD at least see the names of all the young men and women that have died so far in each of the two wars he’s very busy prosecuting:

    I have devoted so much of my later life crusading to save soldiers from uncaring generals and politicians and bureaucrats, who tend so easily to view these kids – who are rarely their own flesh and blood – as abstract pawns in a virtual game of chess, because I was there. I stood and was counted, and I will never forget the pain when I signed KIA letters in Korea and Vietnam. I would choke up as I signed them – I could see the boys’ faces, their cocky smiles, their muddy soldier suits. Each signing reinforced the awesome responsibility I carried as a leader to be as protective as possible about the young lives entrusted to me.

    Emphasis mine. There’s a human cost to these wars. It’s not “absurd” or “grandstanding,” as Bal put it, to recognize that cost.

  • Belf!!!

    I just finished reading about this in the paper. My gut reaction was to wonder what the families are so angry about. I’m glad I’m not the only one.

    I can understand their frustration at the impersonality of him using an autopen to sign his name; however, for them to blast him for it is IMO, just not right. They’re still getting a condolence letter, a written acknowledgement of the death of a loved one. I guess some people need more than that.

  • balbulican

    There is a human cost to the wars, RKB. And frankly, it’s best reimbursed by assigning resources and time to their most intelligent, effective and efficient use. Personally signing letters is not such a use. I stand by my descriptors.

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com/ RKB

    Vinny and I have chatted about this offline several times, most recently maybe a week or two ago. He can confirm that one of the worst things I can possibly imagine — and believe me, I imagine lots of lousy things — is that someday I might have to bury my children. The blow might be softened somewhat if they were eighteen, or twenty-two, because I might have felt they’d had some opportunity to live a good life. But even then, it would be unbelievably hard not to think about all of the things that might have been, the many years and future accomplishments that were cut short.

    So I can say with absolute certainty that if either of my children lost their lives in a war, I would need more than a form letter from the Secretary of Defense thanking me for my child’s sacrifice.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    I think that signing off on those letters is going above and beyond the call of duty, and way beyond what can naturally be expected.

    To expect the SOD to sit there and sign 1200 letters just so the families can have some wowie kazowie letter with a real signature on it is ludicrous. The letter is still a form letter that no one read, had very little thought put into it, and isn’t personalized in any way (if I’m wrong feel free to correct me), so putting Donald Rumsfeld on the bottom of it with a machine is really worth no less than him mindlessly thumbing a letter.

    I’m sure he knows how many people died. In fact, to some degree, I’m sure it eats him up. He definitely doesn’t need to John Hancock a bunch of form letters to make that point.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    RKB: Posts crossed… I agree that a form letter isn’t exactly a great way to be reassured. However, it’s all your getting which is why I think how the signature gets on the bottom of that letter is, in the end, unimportant.

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com/ RKB

    And Bal — my comment #7 is directed to Belf, not you. Rumsfeld is so busy with various speaking engagements (see here — he even had time to sit down and chat with Sean Hannity the other day) that he could easily take five minutes a day to have some aide shove the papers in front of his face in mid-air.

    My point is that it doesn’t take much, and that he certainly have found the time if he thought it was at all important.

  • http://www.dogsnot.net Gordon the Magnificent

    It sucks, bottom line, that he doesn’t have the time to sign the documents personally. One can only imagine the mound of paperwork that must cross that man’s desk every day – it’s unimagineable.

    Even Commanding Officers of Naval Commands as small as 250 people will give command authority to a select number of people to sign documents on their behalf.

    It’s a thoughtful touch for him to sign such documents, but it may not be plausible. Most military documents are autosigned already. This is just another layer to the witchhunt and the media sensation following it.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    I still don’t even see what the issue is. It’s a damn form letter anyway. Does anyone actually get one of these letters and go “Oh, look! Rumsfeld sent me a letter!”

    I’d rather our Secretary of Defense spend more time on more pressing issues. Sending sympathy letters and such, in my opinion, is a job better suited for commanding officers who actually knew the soldier anyway. And as for public appearances, sorry but public officials are almost obligated to do them. When Bush didn’t have a press conference for a couple of months, the vultures Washington Press Corps were beside themselves. Rumsfeld showing up on Sean’s show means nothing to me. That’s part of the job.

    There are legitimate criticisms of the man. Not signing form letters, in my opinion, is not one of them.

  • http://www.dogsnot.net Gordon the Magnificent

    In most conflicts, families were notified by telegram.

  • http://nonannystate.blogspot.com The Other Mikes

    If a letter is to be sent from the SOD, it should be hand-signed. Honestly, though, they shouldn’t be sending the letter. As you noted, it should be coming from the person’s commander, or someone that knew the soldier.

    Personally, if I got a form letter from the SOD about the death of my kid, I’d visit Washington and shove it up his ass.

  • http://www.dogsnot.net Gordon the Magnificent

    If a letter is to be sent from the SOD, it should be hand-signed.

    Other Mike, you clearly have no concept of the pure volume of paperwork that passes through that man’s desk daily. It’s impossible for him to sign everything, that is, unless that’s all you wanted him to do 24/7/365 – sign things.

    Get real.

    You also need to hit the books on how families have historically been notified of a servicemember’s death.

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com/ RKB

    My understanding is that families are notified of a servicemember’s death by a personal visit from other servicemembers specifically trained in dealing with this kind of situation. You’re correct, Gordon, that in WWII this notification was handled by telegram.

    So it’s not as though Rumsfeld’s letters are telling them that they’re children have died, but more of a sympathy letter, thanking the family, etc.

    The “he’s too busy” defense doesn’t hold any water, since The White House also sends out these types of letters, and Bush personally signs each one.

    Like I said before, it was a priority to Rumsfeld, he would have been doing it all along.

  • http://www.dogsnot.net Gordon the Magnificent

    I’m not saying I wished that he didn’t sign them personally, I’m just stating the way we’ve done business historically – whether it’s the Revolutionary War straight through to Gulf War Part One.

    This is just a Witch hunt, nothing more, nothing less.

    If I were Rumsfeld, I wouldn’t send a letter at all. I’d let the people that served with the man, particuarly the Commanding Officer or the Senior Enlisted Member, to mail the condolensces. Up close and heart felt like it should be. Allow the men that served with the loss one to speak.

    Anything from the Secretary of Defense is distant no matter how you’d like to paint it.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Vinny

    Gee, someone here had that idea…

    Now who could that be…

  • http://nonannystate.blogspot.com The Other Mike S.

    Gordo, if it weren’t Christmas, I’d tell you to shut the fuck up. But it is, so I won’t.

    Who gives a flying fuck how notification was done in the past? During the Civil War, you had to wait until someone that was at the battlefield walked home. Is that what you would suggest?

    Glad it only took until post 17 to get a clue….

    Oh, and Merry Christmas, you big lug you!

  • http://www.dogsnot.net Gordon the Magnificent

    Merry Christmas too you too Mike.

  • balbulican

    Personally, I’d consider a Rumsfeld decision to literally hand-sign every single letter of condolence as:
    a) an absurd and almost criminal waste of a senior official’s time, and;

    b) a transparent piece of theatrical grandstanding.

    But there’s no chance he would ever do something as silly as that.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    Well, he’s already decided to give in and hand-sign each letter. Glad to know he’s spending his time on important things now. :roll:

  • http://members.cox.net/truth-seeker Chet

    Sounds like a couple of Senators (not to mention the ones that weren’t quoted by the AP) and print publications are looking to dogpile if you ask me.

    Been going on for a while, long before the humvee armor thing, man.

    This poor guy made enemies on both sides of the aisle just by proposing changes to the system. And these enemies have been looking for every piddly excuse to oust him and get rid of him pretty much since day one.

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com/ RKB

    I mean, think about it… Are we actually expecting the Secretary of Defense to stop whatever it is he’s doing and sign letters? Instead of prosecuting a war in two theatres, he can just sit there writing sympathy notes, and making sure they have that “personal touch.

    During the past two years, there have been over 1,300 U.S. casualties, or little more than two per day. It’s not as if he needs to sign these letters once or twice a year, and there’s a massive stack of them sitting on his desk. I would certainly hope that even if they came into his office once a week that he would be able to carve out five minutes from his busy schedule to be able to personally recognize the 15-30 fallen soldiers from that week.

    Col. David Hackworth wrote about this last month (source), and I think the following quote is a compelling reason why he SHOULD be doing this by hand, why he SHOULD at least see the names of all the young men and women that have died so far in each of the two wars he’s very busy prosecuting:

    I have devoted so much of my later life crusading to save soldiers from uncaring generals and politicians and bureaucrats, who tend so easily to view these kids – who are rarely their own flesh and blood – as abstract pawns in a virtual game of chess, because I was there. I stood and was counted, and I will never forget the pain when I signed KIA letters in Korea and Vietnam. I would choke up as I signed them – I could see the boys’ faces, their cocky smiles, their muddy soldier suits. Each signing reinforced the awesome responsibility I carried as a leader to be as protective as possible about the young lives entrusted to me.

    Emphasis mine. There’s a human cost to these wars. It’s not “absurd” or “grandstanding,” as Bal put it, to recognize that cost.

  • Belf!!!

    I just finished reading about this in the paper. My gut reaction was to wonder what the families are so angry about. I’m glad I’m not the only one.

    I can understand their frustration at the impersonality of him using an autopen to sign his name; however, for them to blast him for it is IMO, just not right. They’re still getting a condolence letter, a written acknowledgement of the death of a loved one. I guess some people need more than that.

  • balbulican

    There is a human cost to the wars, RKB. And frankly, it’s best reimbursed by assigning resources and time to their most intelligent, effective and efficient use. Personally signing letters is not such a use. I stand by my descriptors.

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com/ RKB

    Vinny and I have chatted about this offline several times, most recently maybe a week or two ago. He can confirm that one of the worst things I can possibly imagine — and believe me, I imagine lots of lousy things — is that someday I might have to bury my children. The blow might be softened somewhat if they were eighteen, or twenty-two, because I might have felt they’d had some opportunity to live a good life. But even then, it would be unbelievably hard not to think about all of the things that might have been, the many years and future accomplishments that were cut short.

    So I can say with absolute certainty that if either of my children lost their lives in a war, I would need more than a form letter from the Secretary of Defense thanking me for my child’s sacrifice.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    I think that signing off on those letters is going above and beyond the call of duty, and way beyond what can naturally be expected.

    To expect the SOD to sit there and sign 1200 letters just so the families can have some wowie kazowie letter with a real signature on it is ludicrous. The letter is still a form letter that no one read, had very little thought put into it, and isn’t personalized in any way (if I’m wrong feel free to correct me), so putting Donald Rumsfeld on the bottom of it with a machine is really worth no less than him mindlessly thumbing a letter.

    I’m sure he knows how many people died. In fact, to some degree, I’m sure it eats him up. He definitely doesn’t need to John Hancock a bunch of form letters to make that point.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    RKB: Posts crossed… I agree that a form letter isn’t exactly a great way to be reassured. However, it’s all your getting which is why I think how the signature gets on the bottom of that letter is, in the end, unimportant.

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com/ RKB

    And Bal — my comment #7 is directed to Belf, not you. Rumsfeld is so busy with various speaking engagements (see here — he even had time to sit down and chat with Sean Hannity the other day) that he could easily take five minutes a day to have some aide shove the papers in front of his face in mid-air.

    My point is that it doesn’t take much, and that he certainly have found the time if he thought it was at all important.

  • http://www.dogsnot.net/ Gordon the Magnificent

    It sucks, bottom line, that he doesn’t have the time to sign the documents personally. One can only imagine the mound of paperwork that must cross that man’s desk every day – it’s unimagineable.

    Even Commanding Officers of Naval Commands as small as 250 people will give command authority to a select number of people to sign documents on their behalf.

    It’s a thoughtful touch for him to sign such documents, but it may not be plausible. Most military documents are autosigned already. This is just another layer to the witchhunt and the media sensation following it.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    I still don’t even see what the issue is. It’s a damn form letter anyway. Does anyone actually get one of these letters and go “Oh, look! Rumsfeld sent me a letter!”

    I’d rather our Secretary of Defense spend more time on more pressing issues. Sending sympathy letters and such, in my opinion, is a job better suited for commanding officers who actually knew the soldier anyway. And as for public appearances, sorry but public officials are almost obligated to do them. When Bush didn’t have a press conference for a couple of months, the vultures Washington Press Corps were beside themselves. Rumsfeld showing up on Sean’s show means nothing to me. That’s part of the job.

    There are legitimate criticisms of the man. Not signing form letters, in my opinion, is not one of them.

  • http://www.dogsnot.net/ Gordon the Magnificent

    In most conflicts, families were notified by telegram.

  • http://nonannystate.blogspot.com/ The Other Mikes

    If a letter is to be sent from the SOD, it should be hand-signed. Honestly, though, they shouldn’t be sending the letter. As you noted, it should be coming from the person’s commander, or someone that knew the soldier.

    Personally, if I got a form letter from the SOD about the death of my kid, I’d visit Washington and shove it up his ass.

  • http://www.dogsnot.net/ Gordon the Magnificent

    If a letter is to be sent from the SOD, it should be hand-signed.

    Other Mike, you clearly have no concept of the pure volume of paperwork that passes through that man’s desk daily. It’s impossible for him to sign everything, that is, unless that’s all you wanted him to do 24/7/365 – sign things.

    Get real.

    You also need to hit the books on how families have historically been notified of a servicemember’s death.

  • http://www.robertkbrown.com/ RKB

    My understanding is that families are notified of a servicemember’s death by a personal visit from other servicemembers specifically trained in dealing with this kind of situation. You’re correct, Gordon, that in WWII this notification was handled by telegram.

    So it’s not as though Rumsfeld’s letters are telling them that they’re children have died, but more of a sympathy letter, thanking the family, etc.

    The “he’s too busy” defense doesn’t hold any water, since The White House also sends out these types of letters, and Bush personally signs each one.

    Like I said before, it was a priority to Rumsfeld, he would have been doing it all along.

  • http://www.dogsnot.net/ Gordon the Magnificent

    I’m not saying I wished that he didn’t sign them personally, I’m just stating the way we’ve done business historically – whether it’s the Revolutionary War straight through to Gulf War Part One.

    This is just a Witch hunt, nothing more, nothing less.

    If I were Rumsfeld, I wouldn’t send a letter at all. I’d let the people that served with the man, particuarly the Commanding Officer or the Senior Enlisted Member, to mail the condolensces. Up close and heart felt like it should be. Allow the men that served with the loss one to speak.

    Anything from the Secretary of Defense is distant no matter how you’d like to paint it.

  • http://www.insignificantthoughts.com/ Vinny

    Gee, someone here had that idea…

    Now who could that be…

  • http://nonannystate.blogspot.com/ The Other Mike S.

    Gordo, if it weren’t Christmas, I’d tell you to shut the fuck up. But it is, so I won’t.

    Who gives a flying fuck how notification was done in the past? During the Civil War, you had to wait until someone that was at the battlefield walked home. Is that what you would suggest?

    Glad it only took until post 17 to get a clue….

    Oh, and Merry Christmas, you big lug you!

  • http://www.dogsnot.net/ Gordon the Magnificent

    Merry Christmas too you too Mike.