I hadn't known that about Pat Tillman's death. According to Wikipedia he was killed with three shots to the head from less than 10 yards away, with rounds from a standard U.S. military weapon, either an M16/M4 rifle or a light machine gun. Apparently there was a big cover up. I guess it's a sign of the times that his death would be used as a recruiting tool rather than a warning of life in the military in times of war. And unfortunately we almost always seem to be in a time of war.
DEMONSTRATE TOGETHER by Diana Johnstone / Consortium News 021523
<<< If the Feb. 19 rally to end the war in Ukraine fails it will not be a success for other antiwar organizations that disagree with the Libertarian Party. It will only show that internal divisions can unravel every hope. The failure of Feb. 19 would be a failure for all who oppose the war, showing that internal divisions can unravel every hope. >>>
A bunch of people who disagree with each other on a lot of things have actually gotten together to organize a big antiwar rally in Washington next Sunday. I say, Bravo!
In a nation as divided as the United States is today, a large rally of people who agree with each other on everything is hardly imaginable.
A rally by people who disagree with each other gives hope that a movement to stop war can grow, and even shake the political system paralyzed by the military industrial congressional complex and confusion spread by its servile media.
Abroad, the United States has exploited deep political enmities to provoke a war in Ukraine intended to split Europe definitively, cutting Russia off totally from Germany and the EU, cementing permanent U.S. control of Western Europe.
This divisive policy is pursued in all sorts of sneaky ways that make it hard to uncover and explain. The war in Ukraine creates division between those who have understood what it’s all about and those who haven’t. A large movement is needed to spread discussion, understanding and opposition.
While supporting the war machine’s foreign policy of divide and rule, in recent years the American political class has also fostered internal divisions to an unprecedented extent — some of them real, some of them more or less artificial.
The degree of internal animosity echoes the international hatred fostered by U.S. President Joe Biden’s geopolitical mindset. WE are the GOOD (democracy), THEY are BAD (not communism any more, rather, “autocracy”).
At home, Democrats and Republicans, left and right are two different species, one species born good and the other bad. The bad are inherently bad, with a contagious badness, so we must not meet and try to persuade them. We must have nothing to do with them, and a political apartheid might be the solution. A sort of moral/political racism, creating total division between US and THEM reigns both at home and abroad.
In such an atmosphere, it is no wonder that the Feb. 19 rally “Rage Against the War Machine,” its organizers and its speakers, are being attacked for not being good enough.
Organizers & Speakers
The main announced organizers of the Rage rally are two relatively weak political organizations: the People’s Party and the Libertarian Party. Their weakness should be a positive signal. Inasmuch as neither has the strength to manage a really significant antiwar movement alone, these sponsors are voluntarily offering the movement as a gift to all who take it up. So grab it!
Inevitably, however, the rally itself is being attacked, even by some opponents of the current war, on grounds of the political deficiencies of the organizers.
Could veteran activists be so petty as to be jealous that somebody else got there first? I hope not.
Veteran socialist and antiwar militant Jeff Mackler has strongly condemned the rally as “reactionary” mainly because it is backed by the Libertarian Party. Its success would be a defeat for all enemies of the capitalist system, he has claimed. At one point he observes:
“The Libertarians’ call for a return to a capitalist society where ‘free competition’ prevails is pure fantasy.”
For one thing, that policy has nothing to do with the demands of the rally. For another, if Libertarian Party socio-economic policies are indeed pure fantasy, totally inapplicable in today’s world, they are nothing to worry about.
Come to the rally, try to find a Libertarian and argue. Libertarians are against spending billions for war, this is a point of agreement that could start a fruitful discussion.
Leftist militants who believe a man can be transformed into a woman should have no trouble believing that a libertarian might be transformed into a socialist. Such miracles do occur.
Guilt by Association
Besides that, the presence of the People’s Party makes it clear that the Libertarians’ extreme free market policies are irrelevant to the rally.
The Libertarian Party quickly demonstrated its incapacity to lead the movement very far by its failure to support an important announced speaker against personal attacks — to the dismay, incidentally, of leading libertarians. But the bandwagon rolls on.
Some critics of the rally trot out a favorite cliché of the self-righteous left according to which we must stay away in order not to “legitimize” rightwing participants. This “legitimize” threat is merely the other side of the “guilt by association” coin. Both are used to evade discussion of serious matters by treating political convictions as if they were incurable contagious diseases.
It is perfectly childish to claim that anyone is “legitimized” (or guilty) by random association, such as participation in an antiwar demonstration.
The Feb. 19 speakers’ list is very long, perhaps even too long for the time allotted. But the point is precisely to show a range of viewpoints.
However much I may disagree with this one or that one on somethings, or even on everything else, I am glad to see them getting together to stop the rush toward World War III.
When the subject is WAR, if you can join in opposition only with people who agree with you about everything else, you have lost the sense of common humanity.
The organizers’ list is short, too short. It would be great to see ANSWER, Black Alliance for Peace, Code Pink and other longstanding antiwar organizations involved. No single one of them is strong enough to build a major mass movement alone — at least, so far, none of them have proposed anything as promising as Feb. 19.
The failure of Feb. 19 would not be their success. It would be a failure for all who oppose the war, showing that internal divisions can unravel every hope.
The rally is open. Everyone can share its success by crashing the party, arousing their supporters and friends, turning the rally into the broad, wide-open mass movement that can really begin to challenge the war machine. The need for peace is nobody’s private property.
Wherever you see popular resistance to war begin to come to life, go to it and make it belong to everybody.
Does it seem to others that the very last thing we the people get is the truth? Lies and cover-ups from the government are a daily thing. We get press briefings, good only in demonstrating the power of deceptive language. The last place to go to find out what is really going on is MSM news. The higher one goes in government, the bigger the lies, recall being told the NSA was definitely not spying on Americans. One ray of sunshine is provided by the Internet where one can find truth (the case here) but it requires work to find and none of it is supported by advertising. If one wants to know, one can find out and history always spills the beans on even the most elaborate deceptions, but it isn't a stretch to say that one should always disbelieve at first. It is no wonder we are all cynical, as we are trained to be so.
Take comfort, Bill, in knowing that Your sadness and outrage is felt by many others; and they are saying so… :
NFL CALLED OUT FOR 'WHITEWASHING' PAT TILLMAN'S DEATH by Dan Mennella, Audacy Sports 021323
Football fans who tuned into pregame coverage of Super Bowl LVII on Sunday witnessed an extravagant display of patriotism and militarism.
Among the festivities was the presentation of a handful of scholarship recipients from the Pat Tillman Foundation.
The foundation's namesake, of course, is the former Arizona Cardinals defensive back who famously left the NFL to enlist in the US Army in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was later killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April 2004.
MILITARY OFFICIALS AND THE NFL HAVE LONG TOUTED TILLMAN AS THE FACE OF HEROISM AND BRAVERY, BUT THEY HAVE BEEN LESS THAN FORTHCOMING ABOUT THE SPECIFICS OF HIS SERVICE AND DEATH.
TILLMAN WAS SHOT THREE TIMES IN THE HEAD AT CLOSE RANGE, WHICH RAISES SERIOUS QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED. TILLMAN'S OWN FAMILY HAS LONG EXPRESSED DOUBTS THAT HIS DEATH WAS MERELY ACCIDENTAL, AND HAS PRESSED OFFICIALS FOR GREATER TRANSPARENCY.
Tillman was also reported to have grown disillusioned with the US' military adventures in the Middle East, and may have been preparing to come out publicly against the war in Iraq once his service was over.
ALL OF THIS WAS OMITTED ON SUNDAY, HOWEVER. THE TRIBUTE OBLIQUELY MENTIONED THAT TILLMAN WAS "KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY."
The dubious presentation was called out by many fans and journalists. At Defector, Tom Ley wrote a scathing takedown in which he argued that "The NFL Still Isn't Done Exploiting Pat Tillman's Death."
Others called it a "whitewashing," while some tried to provide additional context to set the record straight… .
“TELL THE REAL STORY”: SUPER BOWL SLAMMED FOR “HIJACKING THE PAT TILLMAN STORY” by Brett Wilkins, Salon 021323
Advocates of peace, truth, and basic human decency on Sunday excoriated the National Football League's "whitewashing" of former Arizona Cardinal and Army Ranger Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan by so-called "friendly fire" and the military's subsequent cover-up—critical details omitted from a glowingly patriotic Super Bowl salute.
As a group of four Pat Tillman Foundation scholars chosen as honorary coin-toss captains at Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona were introduced via a video segment narrated by actor Kevin Costner, viewers were told how Tillman "gave up his NFL career to join the Army Rangers and ultimately lost his life in the line of duty."
The video did not say how Tillman died, what he thought about the Iraq war, or how the military lied to his family and the nation about his death. This outraged many viewers.
"OBVIOUSLY THE ARMY KILLING PAT TILLMAN AND COVERING IT UP AFTERWARDS IS THE WORST THING THE U.S. MILITARY DID TO HIM, BUT THE YEARS THEY'VE SPENT ROLLING OUT HIS PORTRAIT BACKED BY SOME INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC AS A RECRUITING TOOL IS A SURPRISINGLY CLOSE SECOND," tweeted progressive writer Jay Willis.
"PAT TILLMAN CALLED THE IRAQ INVASION AND OCCUPATION 'FUCKING ILLEGAL' AND WAS KILLED BY FRIENDLY FIRE IN AN INCIDENT THE MILITARY COVERED UP AND TRIED TO HIDE FROM HIS FAMILY," tweeted Washington Post investigative reporter Evan Hill.
"I'm writing a book for FIRST GRADERS on Pat Tillman that contains more truth about his life and death than the NFL just provided at the Super Bowl," wrote author Andrew Maraniss.
"ANOTHER YEAR OF HIJACKING THE PAT TILLMAN STORY AND NOT TELLING THAT HE HATED THE IRAQ WAR AND WAS KILLED BY THE MILITARY," said one Twitter user.
"TELL THE REAL STORY OF PAT TILLMAN OR GET OFF THE SCREEN," fumed yet another.
Tillman, 25 years old at the time, turned down a $3.6 million contract with the Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army in May 2002 after the 9/11 attacks on the United States. He expected to be deployed to Afghanistan. Instead, he was sent to invade Iraq—a country that had no ties to 9/11. Tillman quickly came to deplore the "fucking illegal" war, and even made "loose plans" to meet with anti-war intellectual Noam Chomsky, according to The Intercept's Ryan Devereaux.
As Tillman's brother Kevin sardonically wrote: “SOMEHOW WE WERE SENT TO INVADE A NATION BECAUSE IT WAS A DIRECT THREAT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, OR TO THE WORLD, OR HARBORED TERRORISTS, OR WAS INVOLVED IN THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS, OR RECEIVED WEAPONS-GRADE URANIUM FROM NIGER, OR HAD MOBILE WEAPONS LABS, OR WMD, OR HAD A NEED TO BE LIBERATED, OR WE NEEDED TO ESTABLISH A DEMOCRACY, OR STOP AN INSURGENCY, OR STOP A CIVIL WAR WE CREATED THAT CAN'T BE CALLED A CIVIL WAR EVEN THOUGH IT IS. SOMETHING LIKE THAT.”
Pat and Kevin were sent to Afghanistan on April 8, 2004. Stationed at a forward operating base in Khost province, Pat was killed on April 22, 2004 by what the army said was "enemy fire" during a firefight.
However, the army knew in the days immediately following Tillman's death that he had been shot three times in the head from less than 30 feet away by so-called "friendly fire," and that U.S. troops had burned his uniform and body armor in a bid to conceal their fatal error.
"THE DECEPTION SURROUNDING THIS CASE WAS AN INSULT TO THE FAMILY, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, ITS PRIMARY PURPOSE WAS TO DECEIVE A WHOLE NATION," Kevin Tillman testified before Congress in 2007. "WE SAY THESE THINGS WITH DISAPPOINTMENT AND SADNESS FOR OUR COUNTRY. ONCE AGAIN, WE HAVE BEEN USED AS PROPS IN A PENTAGON PUBLIC RELATIONS EXERCISE."
Tillman's father, Patrick Tillman Sr., told the Washington Post in 2005 that after his son was killed, "all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this. THEY PURPOSELY INTERFERED WITH THE INVESTIGATION, THEY COVERED IT UP."
"I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out," he contended. "They blew up their poster boy."
The following year, TILLMAN'S MOTHER MARY WAS INTERVIEWED BY SPORTS ILLUSTRATED AND BLAMED U.S. MILITARY AND GEORGE W. BUSH ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS ALL THE WAY UP TO THEN-DEFENSE SECRETARY DONALD RUMSFELD FOR COVERING UP HER SON'S KILLING.
"THEY ATTACHED THEMSELVES TO HIS VIRTUE AND THEN THREW HIM UNDER THE BUS," SHE SAID. "THEY HAD NO REGARD FOR HIM AS A PERSON. HE'D HATE TO BE USED FOR A LIE. I DON'T CARE IF THEY PUT A BULLET THROUGH MY HEAD IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. I'M NOT STOPPING."
"Where Men Win Glory" is both masterful and heartbreaking in its true story of this Hero by Jon Krakauer.-- One of my favorite Books by him. The true story needs to be told. I was disappointed to not see that...
I hadn't known that about Pat Tillman's death. According to Wikipedia he was killed with three shots to the head from less than 10 yards away, with rounds from a standard U.S. military weapon, either an M16/M4 rifle or a light machine gun. Apparently there was a big cover up. I guess it's a sign of the times that his death would be used as a recruiting tool rather than a warning of life in the military in times of war. And unfortunately we almost always seem to be in a time of war.
Speaking of cover ups, here's a link to Seymour Hersh's article about how the U.S. blew up the Nord Stream pipeline: https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream
A necessary and timely article
DEMONSTRATE TOGETHER by Diana Johnstone / Consortium News 021523
<<< If the Feb. 19 rally to end the war in Ukraine fails it will not be a success for other antiwar organizations that disagree with the Libertarian Party. It will only show that internal divisions can unravel every hope. The failure of Feb. 19 would be a failure for all who oppose the war, showing that internal divisions can unravel every hope. >>>
A bunch of people who disagree with each other on a lot of things have actually gotten together to organize a big antiwar rally in Washington next Sunday. I say, Bravo!
In a nation as divided as the United States is today, a large rally of people who agree with each other on everything is hardly imaginable.
A rally by people who disagree with each other gives hope that a movement to stop war can grow, and even shake the political system paralyzed by the military industrial congressional complex and confusion spread by its servile media.
Abroad, the United States has exploited deep political enmities to provoke a war in Ukraine intended to split Europe definitively, cutting Russia off totally from Germany and the EU, cementing permanent U.S. control of Western Europe.
This divisive policy is pursued in all sorts of sneaky ways that make it hard to uncover and explain. The war in Ukraine creates division between those who have understood what it’s all about and those who haven’t. A large movement is needed to spread discussion, understanding and opposition.
While supporting the war machine’s foreign policy of divide and rule, in recent years the American political class has also fostered internal divisions to an unprecedented extent — some of them real, some of them more or less artificial.
The degree of internal animosity echoes the international hatred fostered by U.S. President Joe Biden’s geopolitical mindset. WE are the GOOD (democracy), THEY are BAD (not communism any more, rather, “autocracy”).
At home, Democrats and Republicans, left and right are two different species, one species born good and the other bad. The bad are inherently bad, with a contagious badness, so we must not meet and try to persuade them. We must have nothing to do with them, and a political apartheid might be the solution. A sort of moral/political racism, creating total division between US and THEM reigns both at home and abroad.
In such an atmosphere, it is no wonder that the Feb. 19 rally “Rage Against the War Machine,” its organizers and its speakers, are being attacked for not being good enough.
Organizers & Speakers
The main announced organizers of the Rage rally are two relatively weak political organizations: the People’s Party and the Libertarian Party. Their weakness should be a positive signal. Inasmuch as neither has the strength to manage a really significant antiwar movement alone, these sponsors are voluntarily offering the movement as a gift to all who take it up. So grab it!
Inevitably, however, the rally itself is being attacked, even by some opponents of the current war, on grounds of the political deficiencies of the organizers.
Could veteran activists be so petty as to be jealous that somebody else got there first? I hope not.
Veteran socialist and antiwar militant Jeff Mackler has strongly condemned the rally as “reactionary” mainly because it is backed by the Libertarian Party. Its success would be a defeat for all enemies of the capitalist system, he has claimed. At one point he observes:
“The Libertarians’ call for a return to a capitalist society where ‘free competition’ prevails is pure fantasy.”
For one thing, that policy has nothing to do with the demands of the rally. For another, if Libertarian Party socio-economic policies are indeed pure fantasy, totally inapplicable in today’s world, they are nothing to worry about.
Come to the rally, try to find a Libertarian and argue. Libertarians are against spending billions for war, this is a point of agreement that could start a fruitful discussion.
Leftist militants who believe a man can be transformed into a woman should have no trouble believing that a libertarian might be transformed into a socialist. Such miracles do occur.
Guilt by Association
Besides that, the presence of the People’s Party makes it clear that the Libertarians’ extreme free market policies are irrelevant to the rally.
The Libertarian Party quickly demonstrated its incapacity to lead the movement very far by its failure to support an important announced speaker against personal attacks — to the dismay, incidentally, of leading libertarians. But the bandwagon rolls on.
Some critics of the rally trot out a favorite cliché of the self-righteous left according to which we must stay away in order not to “legitimize” rightwing participants. This “legitimize” threat is merely the other side of the “guilt by association” coin. Both are used to evade discussion of serious matters by treating political convictions as if they were incurable contagious diseases.
It is perfectly childish to claim that anyone is “legitimized” (or guilty) by random association, such as participation in an antiwar demonstration.
The Feb. 19 speakers’ list is very long, perhaps even too long for the time allotted. But the point is precisely to show a range of viewpoints.
However much I may disagree with this one or that one on somethings, or even on everything else, I am glad to see them getting together to stop the rush toward World War III.
When the subject is WAR, if you can join in opposition only with people who agree with you about everything else, you have lost the sense of common humanity.
The organizers’ list is short, too short. It would be great to see ANSWER, Black Alliance for Peace, Code Pink and other longstanding antiwar organizations involved. No single one of them is strong enough to build a major mass movement alone — at least, so far, none of them have proposed anything as promising as Feb. 19.
The failure of Feb. 19 would not be their success. It would be a failure for all who oppose the war, showing that internal divisions can unravel every hope.
The rally is open. Everyone can share its success by crashing the party, arousing their supporters and friends, turning the rally into the broad, wide-open mass movement that can really begin to challenge the war machine. The need for peace is nobody’s private property.
Wherever you see popular resistance to war begin to come to life, go to it and make it belong to everybody.
Source: https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/15/diana-johnstone-demonstrate-together/
great article Bill. It is amazing how quickly we either forget or incidents are covered up and white washed by the press and the pentagon.
Does it seem to others that the very last thing we the people get is the truth? Lies and cover-ups from the government are a daily thing. We get press briefings, good only in demonstrating the power of deceptive language. The last place to go to find out what is really going on is MSM news. The higher one goes in government, the bigger the lies, recall being told the NSA was definitely not spying on Americans. One ray of sunshine is provided by the Internet where one can find truth (the case here) but it requires work to find and none of it is supported by advertising. If one wants to know, one can find out and history always spills the beans on even the most elaborate deceptions, but it isn't a stretch to say that one should always disbelieve at first. It is no wonder we are all cynical, as we are trained to be so.
Take comfort, Bill, in knowing that Your sadness and outrage is felt by many others; and they are saying so… :
NFL CALLED OUT FOR 'WHITEWASHING' PAT TILLMAN'S DEATH by Dan Mennella, Audacy Sports 021323
Football fans who tuned into pregame coverage of Super Bowl LVII on Sunday witnessed an extravagant display of patriotism and militarism.
Among the festivities was the presentation of a handful of scholarship recipients from the Pat Tillman Foundation.
The foundation's namesake, of course, is the former Arizona Cardinals defensive back who famously left the NFL to enlist in the US Army in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was later killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April 2004.
MILITARY OFFICIALS AND THE NFL HAVE LONG TOUTED TILLMAN AS THE FACE OF HEROISM AND BRAVERY, BUT THEY HAVE BEEN LESS THAN FORTHCOMING ABOUT THE SPECIFICS OF HIS SERVICE AND DEATH.
TILLMAN WAS SHOT THREE TIMES IN THE HEAD AT CLOSE RANGE, WHICH RAISES SERIOUS QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED. TILLMAN'S OWN FAMILY HAS LONG EXPRESSED DOUBTS THAT HIS DEATH WAS MERELY ACCIDENTAL, AND HAS PRESSED OFFICIALS FOR GREATER TRANSPARENCY.
Tillman was also reported to have grown disillusioned with the US' military adventures in the Middle East, and may have been preparing to come out publicly against the war in Iraq once his service was over.
ALL OF THIS WAS OMITTED ON SUNDAY, HOWEVER. THE TRIBUTE OBLIQUELY MENTIONED THAT TILLMAN WAS "KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY."
The dubious presentation was called out by many fans and journalists. At Defector, Tom Ley wrote a scathing takedown in which he argued that "The NFL Still Isn't Done Exploiting Pat Tillman's Death."
Others called it a "whitewashing," while some tried to provide additional context to set the record straight… .
Continued at https://www.audacy.com/national/sports/nfl-called-out-for-whitewashing-pat-tillmans-death [EMPHASES added.]
“TELL THE REAL STORY”: SUPER BOWL SLAMMED FOR “HIJACKING THE PAT TILLMAN STORY” by Brett Wilkins, Salon 021323
Advocates of peace, truth, and basic human decency on Sunday excoriated the National Football League's "whitewashing" of former Arizona Cardinal and Army Ranger Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan by so-called "friendly fire" and the military's subsequent cover-up—critical details omitted from a glowingly patriotic Super Bowl salute.
As a group of four Pat Tillman Foundation scholars chosen as honorary coin-toss captains at Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona were introduced via a video segment narrated by actor Kevin Costner, viewers were told how Tillman "gave up his NFL career to join the Army Rangers and ultimately lost his life in the line of duty."
The video did not say how Tillman died, what he thought about the Iraq war, or how the military lied to his family and the nation about his death. This outraged many viewers.
"OBVIOUSLY THE ARMY KILLING PAT TILLMAN AND COVERING IT UP AFTERWARDS IS THE WORST THING THE U.S. MILITARY DID TO HIM, BUT THE YEARS THEY'VE SPENT ROLLING OUT HIS PORTRAIT BACKED BY SOME INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC AS A RECRUITING TOOL IS A SURPRISINGLY CLOSE SECOND," tweeted progressive writer Jay Willis.
"PAT TILLMAN CALLED THE IRAQ INVASION AND OCCUPATION 'FUCKING ILLEGAL' AND WAS KILLED BY FRIENDLY FIRE IN AN INCIDENT THE MILITARY COVERED UP AND TRIED TO HIDE FROM HIS FAMILY," tweeted Washington Post investigative reporter Evan Hill.
"I'm writing a book for FIRST GRADERS on Pat Tillman that contains more truth about his life and death than the NFL just provided at the Super Bowl," wrote author Andrew Maraniss.
"ANOTHER YEAR OF HIJACKING THE PAT TILLMAN STORY AND NOT TELLING THAT HE HATED THE IRAQ WAR AND WAS KILLED BY THE MILITARY," said one Twitter user.
"TELL THE REAL STORY OF PAT TILLMAN OR GET OFF THE SCREEN," fumed yet another.
Tillman, 25 years old at the time, turned down a $3.6 million contract with the Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army in May 2002 after the 9/11 attacks on the United States. He expected to be deployed to Afghanistan. Instead, he was sent to invade Iraq—a country that had no ties to 9/11. Tillman quickly came to deplore the "fucking illegal" war, and even made "loose plans" to meet with anti-war intellectual Noam Chomsky, according to The Intercept's Ryan Devereaux.
As Tillman's brother Kevin sardonically wrote: “SOMEHOW WE WERE SENT TO INVADE A NATION BECAUSE IT WAS A DIRECT THREAT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, OR TO THE WORLD, OR HARBORED TERRORISTS, OR WAS INVOLVED IN THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS, OR RECEIVED WEAPONS-GRADE URANIUM FROM NIGER, OR HAD MOBILE WEAPONS LABS, OR WMD, OR HAD A NEED TO BE LIBERATED, OR WE NEEDED TO ESTABLISH A DEMOCRACY, OR STOP AN INSURGENCY, OR STOP A CIVIL WAR WE CREATED THAT CAN'T BE CALLED A CIVIL WAR EVEN THOUGH IT IS. SOMETHING LIKE THAT.”
Pat and Kevin were sent to Afghanistan on April 8, 2004. Stationed at a forward operating base in Khost province, Pat was killed on April 22, 2004 by what the army said was "enemy fire" during a firefight.
However, the army knew in the days immediately following Tillman's death that he had been shot three times in the head from less than 30 feet away by so-called "friendly fire," and that U.S. troops had burned his uniform and body armor in a bid to conceal their fatal error.
"THE DECEPTION SURROUNDING THIS CASE WAS AN INSULT TO THE FAMILY, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, ITS PRIMARY PURPOSE WAS TO DECEIVE A WHOLE NATION," Kevin Tillman testified before Congress in 2007. "WE SAY THESE THINGS WITH DISAPPOINTMENT AND SADNESS FOR OUR COUNTRY. ONCE AGAIN, WE HAVE BEEN USED AS PROPS IN A PENTAGON PUBLIC RELATIONS EXERCISE."
Tillman's father, Patrick Tillman Sr., told the Washington Post in 2005 that after his son was killed, "all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this. THEY PURPOSELY INTERFERED WITH THE INVESTIGATION, THEY COVERED IT UP."
"I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out," he contended. "They blew up their poster boy."
The following year, TILLMAN'S MOTHER MARY WAS INTERVIEWED BY SPORTS ILLUSTRATED AND BLAMED U.S. MILITARY AND GEORGE W. BUSH ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS ALL THE WAY UP TO THEN-DEFENSE SECRETARY DONALD RUMSFELD FOR COVERING UP HER SON'S KILLING.
"THEY ATTACHED THEMSELVES TO HIS VIRTUE AND THEN THREW HIM UNDER THE BUS," SHE SAID. "THEY HAD NO REGARD FOR HIM AS A PERSON. HE'D HATE TO BE USED FOR A LIE. I DON'T CARE IF THEY PUT A BULLET THROUGH MY HEAD IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. I'M NOT STOPPING."
https://www.salon.com/2023/02/13/tell-the-real-story-super-bowl-slammed-for-hijacking-the-pat-tillman-story_partner/ [EMPHASES added.]
Thanks again for these references, Jeff.
Roger that. My pleasure.
It would be very interesting to get Pat Tillman's Mom's and Dad's reactions and responses to all this, eh?
Anyone remember how the "Die Horst Wessel Lied" goes?
"Where Men Win Glory" is both masterful and heartbreaking in its true story of this Hero by Jon Krakauer.-- One of my favorite Books by him. The true story needs to be told. I was disappointed to not see that...