Signature stamp

Imagine that your son or daughter was recently killed during one of the many battles in Iraq. While overwhelmed with grief and a flood of memories from their life, you receive a letter from the U.S. Military. In opening the letter and reading the condolences, when you arrive at
the signature of Sec. of Defense Rumsfield, you are shocked to see that he didn't have the decency to sign his own letter! Preposterous? Read on!

Two colonels in the Pentagon, under the cover of anonymity (in the Bush Admin., you comment anonymously if you want to keep your job and honor the truth) stated that Sec of Def Rummy has relinquished the time consuming task of signing KIA letters to a machine in order to maintain his tight schedule (including his regular squash game).

Sue Niederer, whose son Seth was also killed in Iraq, sums it up: “My son wasn’t a person to these people, he was just an entity to play their war game. But where are their children? Not one of them knows how any of us feel, and they obviously aren’t interested in finding out. None of them cares. And Rumsfeld depersonalizing his signature – it’s a slap in the face, don’t you think?”

This administration continues to outdo itself in its insensitivity to people asked to make the supreme sacrifice. Despite the rhetoric and propaganda, it's fairly obvious that those in charge care little if any for the young men and women paying dearly for whatever our reason is for being in Iraq. When you can't even sign the letter to parents notifying them of their child's death, you aren't much of a leader at all.