Rumsfeld attacked over Iraq condolence letters

US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld has decided to personally sign condolence letters to the families of American troops killed in action rather than letting a machine affix his signature.

Republican and Democratic members of Congress criticised the embattled Pentagon chief yesterday for not signing the letters himself all along.

“My goodness, that’s the least that we could expect of the Secretary of Defence, is having some personal attention paid by him,” said Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, noting that President George Bush signed such letters himself.

“If the President of the United States can find time to do that, why can’t the Secretary of Defence?” Hagel, a Vietnam veteran, asked on CBS’ Face the Nation.

In a statement on Friday, Rumsfeld announced the change in policy and said more than 1,000 condolence letters had gone out to relatives of Americans killed in military action during the global fight against terrorism.

“While I have not individually signed each one, in the interest of ensuring expeditious contact with grieving family members, I have directed that in the future I sign each letter,” Rumsfeld said in the statement.

“I am deeply grateful for the many letters I have received from the families of those who have been killed in the service of our country, and I recognise and honour their personal loss.”

The statement, which was reported on Friday by the military newspaper, Stars & Stripes, did not specifically refer to troops killed in Iraq, though family members of soldiers who died there told the newspaper they were angry with Rumsfeld’s apparent stamped signature. More than 1,300 American troops have died since the war began in March 2003.

Democratic senator Jack Reed, a graduate of the West Point military academy, said Rumsfeld’s failure to sign letters himself until now displayed “his lack of leadership styles that are appropriate for the military”.

Congressman Roy Blunt, the third-ranking Republican in the House said on CNN’s Late Edition that “signing the letter is a mechanical but an important thing”.

“It’s better for him to do it and he’s acknowledged that. It was a mistake and it was a mistake that he’s now said he will rectify,” Blunt said.

The signature flap was the latest in a stinging string of criticism in recent weeks of the Defence Secretary’s handling of the war in Iraq.