In a Page 1 Washington Post article this morning (one that seems to be staying on Page 1 versus another story from over the weekend which we will be reporting on shortly!), the parents of Pro Footbal Player turned U.S. Army Soldier, Pat Tillman, have blasted both the Army and George W. Bush for their “lies” concerning the death of their son via “friendly fire” in Afghanistan in 2004.
Some of the extraordinary details from the WaPo story which likely won’t make it onto the Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly programs, unless the plan to call Tillman’s parents America Haters as well (wouldn’t be a surprise at this point)…
More than a year after their son was shot several times by his fellow Army Rangers on a craggy hillside near the Pakistani border, Tillman’s mother and father said in interviews that they believe the military and the government created a heroic tale about how their son died to foster a patriotic response across the country. They say the Army’s “lies” about what happened have made them suspicious, and that they are certain they will never get the full story.
“Pat had high ideals about the country; that’s why he did what he did,” Mary Tillman said in her first lengthy interview since her son’s death. “The military let him down. The administration let him down. It was a sign of disrespect. The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting.”
…
Patrick Tillman Sr., a San Jose lawyer, said he is furious about what he found in the volumes of witness statements and investigative documents the Army has given to the family. He decried what he calls a “botched homicide investigation” and blames high-ranking Army officers for presenting “outright lies” to the family and to the public.
“After it happened, all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this,” Patrick Tillman said. “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. They blew up their poster boy.”
…
“It makes you feel like you’re losing your mind in a way,” she said. “You imagine things. When you don’t know the truth, certain details can be blown out of proportion. The truth may be painful, but it’s the truth. You start to contrive all these scenarios that could have taken place because they just kept lying. If you feel you’re being lied to, you can never put it to rest.”
Patrick Tillman Sr. believes he will never get the truth, and he says he is resigned to that now. But he wants everyone in the chain of command, from Tillman’s direct supervisors to the one-star general who conducted the latest investigation, to face discipline for “dishonorable acts.” He also said the soldiers who killed his son have not been adequately punished.
“Maybe lying’s not a big deal anymore,” he said. “Pat’s dead, and this isn’t going to bring him back. But these guys should have been held up to scrutiny, right up the chain of command, and no one has.”
That their son was famous opened up the situation to problems, the Tillmans say, in part because of the devastating public relations loss his death represented for the military. Mary Tillman says the government used her son for weeks after his death, perpetuating an untrue story to capitalize on his altruism — just as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was erupting publicly. She said she was particularly offended when President Bush offered a taped memorial message to Tillman at a Cardinals football game shortly before the presidential election last fall. She again felt as though her son was being used, something he never would have wanted.
…
“This lie was to cover their image. I think there’s a lot more yet that we don’t even know, or they wouldn’t still be covering their tails.”
“If this is what happens when someone high profile dies, I can only imagine what happens with everyone else.”
What a coincidence! Brad and I almost never blog about the same things … but the story of Pat Tillman’s death and his parents’ reaction to the lies told about it are the subject of the most recent piece on please don’t read my blog
This whole Tillman issue AGAIN displays how the Bushies work and how they run their operations.
I can’t wait for the IMPEACHMENT
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It’s encouraging to see that the Tillmans seem to realize that those who lied so easily and shamelessly about their son’s death would lie about other things as well.
One can only hope that the Tillmans do not lose heart, but are instead buoyed by their patriotism and motivated to learn more of the truth about our government, to speak out, and to fight to take our country back from those in Congress, the White House, and the military who hold democracy and the principles on which our country was founded in deepest contempt.
I won’t even pretend to know what these parents are going through emotionally. But the grieving process is difficult enough without the influence of lies and cover up. I hope their anger at these ghouls motivate them in positive ways.
Irony of ironies! The N.F.L. is the ultimate exponent of macho-man America (NASCAR might be a close second). When Tillman enlisted the TV networks made a huge deal out of it and the administration basked in his reflected glory.
Suddenly our own people shoot him dead. The army can’t admit the truth, so it contrives a story that he died at the hands of hostile Afghans (whoever they are). Then the truth comes out…Pat Tillman, who gave i[ a multi-million-dollar income to fight for the country he loved, is betrayed by his own government for PR purposes. How lovely.
They certainly never hesitate to take advantage of the misfortunes of others … but how is that surprising? They don’t even hesitate to cause the misfortunes of others!
My deepest sympathies for Pat’s family, and to an infinitely lesser degree, for those of us who mourned his useless and untimely passing. My deepest scorn for pimps who tried to push a "cold military stud" for their own PR purposes in an attempt to cover their behinds for getting the whole world into this predicament. May they roast in hell!
The story is about Searching For A Patriot of Gold.
The shooters who love Iraq and do not want to come home, featured on a recent documentary, are from the places where cities burn.
The poorer parts of the cities. They are the undereducated and those in need of careers. I am not talking about the national guard sections of the shooters … a different demographic in general.
The military obfuscation campaign convinced them they could be all they could be outside the american places where cities burn.
The foreign places where cities burn is where they would find social sanctity they were told – and they believed cause they had needs.
So when Tillman came along it was like the old days to the pentagon octogynians when volunteers were "golden patriots". A la WW II and WW I.
He was a breath of fresh air from the past and I am sure the PR folk in the pentagon were falling all over themselves to deliver the goods.
When the shooters, from the place where cities burn, shot the goose that laid the golden patriot, in a freudian slip, it was not within the power of the pentagon elite to fathom it.
Denial, the second most prevalent military industrial complex behavior (lies has the #1 spot), just took over the scene.
Now the Tillmans will live out their lives knowing what we know. Somehow it makes me feel closer to them, yet, I really do wish I had never heard of them.
My heart breaks for the parents, family and friends of Pat Tillman. Please know there are many who are praying for you and praying we can find the truth.
Remember this:
St. Luke 12:1-3
1. In the meantime, when there were gathered together, an innumerable multitude of people insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, (Jesus says) Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hyprocisy.
2. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.
3. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.
To me the most heartbreaking facet of the whole story is — and always has been — that Pat and his brother both joined up as a direct result of the lies they were told about 9/11 … so the damned lies and the damned lying liars who tell them are as guilty of causing his death as they are guilty of exploiting it …
… said guilt multiplied by how many other deaths?
My nephew Lt Ken Ballard was killed in Iraq ( I think so at least ) a year ago memorial day. He also joine dht e army for patriotic reasons; The army reported that he died as a hero killing insurgents and saving his platoon. Well, a year later (reported by cnn in the following link )
it turns out that, well, the army knew his death wass an oopsie and they told my sister yesterday that there was an " error" in the reporting. How many other such cases are there. I think it is time to demand some straight answers.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/1....ap/index.html
My nephew Lt Ken Ballard was killed in Iraq ( I think so at least ) a year ago memorial day. He also joined the army for patriotic reasons; The army reported that he died as a hero killing insurgents and saving his platoon. Well, a year later (reported by cnn in the following link )
it turns out that, well, the army knew his death was an oopsie and they told my sister yesterday that there was an " error" in the reporting. How many other such cases are there. I think it is time to demand some straight answers.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/1....ap/index.html