They signed it, didn’t they? The letter stays in the show!

Military Lawyers Caught in Middle on Tribunals, NYT, 9/15/06
On Wednesday evening, the night before a crucial Senate vote…the Pentagon general counsel, William J. Haynes II, summoned the senior uniformed lawyers [judge advocates general] from each military service to a meeting.
…Mr. Haynes sought to enlist the lawyers on the administration’s side by asking whether any would object to signing a letter….The lawyers agreed, but only after hours of negotiating over specific words, so that they would not appear to be wholly endorsing the plan.
Early Thursday morning, White House allies distributed the letter…as evidence that the group, known as Jags, now supported the administration plan.
That prompted loud protests from Republican senators opposed to the plan. They dismissed the letter on grounds that the lawyers would have signed it only under pressure.
DKo: Pressure? Is that fair? “Humiliating and degrading treatment” of one’s subordinates, perhaps. An “outrage upon the personal dignity” of the military’s most senior legal officers, maybe. Is that pressure?
Hell, maybe it was the only way to make them sign.