Bush started his PR campaign to counter the negative war stories a little earlier than previously thought. Several letters from soldiers published in local newspapers across the country seem to be form letters . The problem continues, though, that some soldiers didn’t know they had sent letters.

Six soldiers reached by GNS directly or through their families said they agreed with the letter’s thrust. But none of the soldiers said he wrote it, and one said he didn’t even sign it. A seventh soldier didn’t know about the letter until his father congratulated him for getting it published in the newspaper in Beckley, W.Va.

“When I told him he wrote such a good letter, he said, ‘What letter?’ “ Timothy Deaconson said Friday, recalling the phone conversation he had with his son, Nick.

Getting caught in something like this is just bad, bad, bad. Even if the soldiers agree with the message of the letter, it looks fishy to line soldiers up in front of their superior officers and peers then ask them to sign a letter if they agree with it AND THEN mail the letter for them. Even worse, trying to pass it off as original writing…