ANOTHER MOTHER OF A STORY

ANOTHER MOTHER WILL SOON HAVE HER SAY and the tale she tells of friendly fire may now meet more friendly reception than it has in the past [story] How Pat Tillman died and how it was covered up may shoot the final hole in the myth of Bush The War President Commmander in Chief.  The Heretik says it should

WHO HASN'T HEARD THE TALE of the multimillion dollar contract football player Cardinal PAT TILLMAN who, who took off his pads and helmet of the football field to put on the uniform of the U.S. Army Ranger? PatTillman served with his new brothers in arms, he actually served with his own brother.  Let us now remember Pat Tillman is our brother too.  But having heard of his enlistment, who has heard the true story of Pat Tillman’s service and the true story of his sacrifice.  Our leaders made much of his sacrifice when it served them.  They discarded the truth of his death.

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THE HERO, THE MYTHS, AND THE LIES [WaPo] Myths shaped Pat Tillman's reputation, and mystery shrouded his death. A long-haired, fierce-hitting defensive back with the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League, he turned away a $3.6 million contract after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to volunteer for the war on terrorism, ultimately giving his life in combat in Taliban-infested southeastern Afghanistan.
Millions of stunned Americans mourned his death last April 22 and embraced his sacrifice as a rare example of courage and national service. But the full story of how Tillman ended up on that Afghan ridge and why he died at the hands of his own comrades has never been told.

THE HERETIK KNOWS TRUTH is the first casualty of war and lies walk dead among us.  The masters of war use lies when inconvenient truth would end slavish acceptance of a canned reality served up like a ration to sustain continued war.

FAMILY DEMANDS TRUTH [SF Gate]
His killing was widely reported by the media, including conservative commentators such  as Ann Coulter, who called him “an American original — virtuous, pure and masculine like only an American male can be.” His May 3, 2004, memorial in San Jose drew 3,500 people and  was nationally televised. 

Not until five weeks later, as Tillman’s battalion was returning home, did officials inform the public and the Tillman family that he had been killed by his fellow soldiers.  [hat tip: King of Zembla]

THE HERETIK BELIEVES Pat Tillman served his administration as a shield for the breaking torture story of Abu Ghraib.  So his family was tortured with the lie of his death.  Tillman's death is in ways worse than Abu Ghraib because it tells us our leaders will use anything, even the most noble sacrifice, to serve its lying course of action.

COVERUP AT HIGHEST LEVELS [Blumenthal/HuffPost] “The administration clearly was using this case for its own political reasons. This cover-up started within minutes of Pat’s death, and it started at high levels. This is not something that (lower-ranking) people in the field do.”
--Pat Tillman Sr.

Of all the symbols the right used to cultivate domestic support for the Bush administration's military escapades in Iraq and Afghanistan, that of Pat Tillman was one its most effective.

TILLMAN AND KERRY [Lawyers, Guns, and Money]  Luckily for the right, Pat Tillman died in Afghanistan. Had he lived, they would have had to come up with a smear campaign against him, too.

NO STORY HERE, MOVE ALONG? [Tom Dispatch] Recently, Ted Rall, considering press response to a more modest smoking-gun incident -- the covered up friendly-fire death of former NFL star Pat Tillman in Afghanistan whose revelation was reported rather reluctantly on the inside pages of papers -- wrote tellingly: "For journalists supposedly dedicated to uncovering the truth and informing the public, this is exactly the opposite of how things ought to be. Corrections and exposés should always run bigger, longer and more often than initial, discredited stories."

THE HERETIK NOTES one reason stories like Pat Tillman's fade away is because the reporters who would tell them fade away first. 
 

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[Yelladog] It sounds to me like Tillman had ripped a page from RFK's book.

SOME SEE IT QUITE A BIT DARKER [DIGBY] ANOTHER F WORD He might have been fragged.
It's hardly better that Americans killed him by accident. But it is better. I no longer trust what any official says about the Iraq war. There seem to be no limits. If it's true that the military routinely forces innocent people into stress positions so painful they pass out, anything could be true. Even that.

 

Comments

[Kate]

That Chronicle story is really disturbing.

[Shakespeare's Sister]

Patrick at Yelladog's got a great post on this - and check out norbizness' comment there, too.

[Kate S.]

I agree, the article is very disturbing on so many levels. It really shows how unaccountable and willing the military is to protect their own from scrutiny, all the way up to the top brass in the Pentagon. They will go to any length to maintain their shiny image, including perjury, changing testimony, out and out lying to everyone. It's disgusting. That's not what I thought our military was about -- it belies their committment to -- committment; bravery, courage, honesty, group cohesiveness, to defend. Instead we have a new generation that likes to torture, is more than willing to be led as if blind, checking character at the door.

About halfway through the article, when it mentions how outspoken Tillman was in his beliefs with his platoon -- and that he kept a journal -- that mysteriously "disappeared" after his death, it kind of all made sense how he could die in friendly fire, it wouldn't be the first time; but this just sounds like incredible incompetence, undertrained troops, officers deviating from procedure, everybody nervous, trigger fingers, in a bad place, in broad daylight ... I dunno...

What a surprise ending, though; a beautiful young man, sensitive, brilliant, an individual, creative, compassionate, creating a library of classics and producing gourmet coffee to share, encouraging the poet in the troop ... now dead...

What a fucking waste.