It's the least he can do

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's cavalier attitude toward our troops never ceases to amaze me. He was a key player in sending them to war based on a threat that was uncertain at best. His department, after almost two years, still hasn't fully equipped our military with the protective armor it needs in Iraq. And now we learn that Rumsfeld couldn't even be bothered to sign the condolence letters sent to the families of soldiers killed in battle.

I can't even put into words how disgusting that is. Courageous men and women are giving their lives for our country every day, and this guy thinks he's too busy to scrawl his name on a piece of paper that tells their loved ones "sorry for your loss"?

The Stars and Stripes story in the link above -- mega-props to that newspaper's staff for confronting the Pentagon on this issue, by the way -- reveals that Rumsfeld has pledged to start personally signing every condolence letter after he faced public criticism from grieving military families who received letters with his signature stamped on them. In typical Rumsfeld fashion, though, he had to throw some spin into the mix by claiming that though he didn't sign every letter, he "wrote and approved" all of them.

Really? You wrote them all? Because it seems like it wouldn't be much more time-consuming to take a few seconds to sign a letter that you spent so long writing. But hey, what do I know? I'm just a guy who thinks this Pentagon gig might not be the thing for you.