ABC SEEMS TO HAVE THE STORY on the letters from Iraq:

an e-mail to ABCNEWS today, the commander of the battalion, Lt. Col. Dominic Caraccilo, said the “letter-writing initiative” was all his idea.

Caraccilo said he circulated the form letter to his soldiers to give them “an opportunity to let their respective hometowns know what they are accomplishing here in Kirkuk. As you might expect, they are working at an extremely fast pace and getting the good news back home is not always easy. We thought it would be a good idea to encapsulate what we as a battalion have accomplished since arriving Iraq and share that pride with people back home.”

Caraccilo wrote that his staff drafted the letter, he edited it and reviewed it and then offered it to the soldiers. “Every soldier who signed that letter did so after a careful read,” he said. “Some, who could find the time, decided to send their own versions, while others chose not to take part in the initiative.”

Caraccilo was unapologetic, saying that the letter “perfectly reflects what each of these brave soldiers has and continues to accomplish on the ground.”

Interestingly, ABC seems to agree with that part, saying that things really are better in Kirkuk. It would be better, of course, if the words were actually those of the soldiers.

But then, there are rather a lot of people who speak in public words that they didn’t write.

UPDATE: The former LT Smash comments.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader James Rudolph emails:

I’m surprised that the press has make any issue at all about the half dozen or so form letters from Iraq. Anyone who has been involved with the environmental impact process can attest to the hundreds or thousands of form letters with only a signature, cut and pasted letters, hand written letters using canned paragraphs, etc. that are received. Environmental groups are particularly active in using this approach to generate lots of mail. I would guess that newspapers, news magazines, and politicians all receive the same sorts of thing. If anyone is going to treat such letters from troops in Iraq as suspect,
then they also need to challenge political and environmental groups when they claim that 20,000 letters were received by Congress demanding an end to logging or some such.

Yeah, I’ve seen plenty of those.