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Originally Posted by roachboy
you would think that this kind of thing would really stick in the craw of folk who have been aligning support for the iraq war with support for the troops who are sent there. in this move--or slide--it seems that the bush administration gets aligned with the best interest of the troops
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Why? You expect the secretary of defense to personally sign every letter to a dead soldier's family?
I wonder, did previous defense secretaries sign all such letters during previous wars? Vietnam? Korea? WW2? WW1? If they did, I doubt they'd have time to do anything else...
Personally, I think this is a non-issue, made into something nasty by opponents of the war in general, and Rumsfeld in particular. Of course the families are outraged; they lost someone in a war and would want the President himself to visit them. Of course every politician is condemning it; this issue could make or break their political future. Of course the troops feel angry; they feel that the politicians don't care about them.
It's a great story, perfect material to damage Rumsfeld as being unpatriotic/un-American/uncaring... But I keep wondering about previous wars and previous defense secretaries; is this something only Rumsfeld did, or was it common practice? I suspect it's the latter.