I don't particularly understand how a man can think fake signatures are good enough for families grieving for their loved ones in Iraq, but evidently Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did. Now, as CNN.com reports, he's finally changed his mind.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said he will sign each letter written to family members of service members killed in military action.

Stars and Stripes, the newspaper devoted to military news, published a statement it said Rumsfeld provided to them on the matter.

"I wrote and approved the now more than 1,000 letters sent to family members and next of kin of each of the servicemen and women killed in military action.

"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, published in Friday's edition of the paper.

[...]

The secretary had been criticized for not personally signing all such letters and using mechanical signatures. Stars and Stripes quotes family members who have disliked the practice. [emphasis added]

This man is truly incompetent. Using mechanical signatures?!

I believe The Daily Show's Stephen Colbert got it right a few weeks back when he said the only condition for a member of the administration to remain in the cabinent was gross negligence (or something to that effect). Tom Ridge's idiotic color alert system, Colbert said, was not stupid enough. Luckily for Rumsfeld, he has proven his inability to do a satisfactory job time and time again. In turn, he was rewarded with another term at the Pentagon.