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"Somehow Profiting From Tragedy and
Horror is Tolerated"
Pat
Tillman's Brother Breaks His Silence
By DAVE ZIRIN
When Pat Tillman, former NFL player
and Army Ranger, died in Afghanistan in 2004, it unleashed a
drama that moved from tragedy to obscenity to mystery.
First there was Pat's death.
Because Tillman wasn't the kind of anonymous fallen soldier the
Bush administration could blithely ignore, we all bore witness
to the tears of his family--including his brother, best friend,
and fellow Army Ranger, Kevin. Pat's death--like every last death
that,s resulted from this horrific Middle Eastern escapade--was
tragedy. Then came obscenity: it came out after Pat's funeral,
that he had died at the hands of his own troops in a case of
"friendly fire". This bit of information was suppressed
from everyone outside the Pentagon and Oval Office even from
Pat's family. It was even kept from Kevin, serving in Pat's battalion.
Eulogists like John McCain--knowingly or unknowingly--told lies
over Pat Tillman's body about death in combat. Bush gave a speech
about Tillman over the jumbotron at football stadiums. He was
given the Silver Star--a merit for combat, not friendly fire.
From the perspective of this administration, Pat died for the
noble cause of PR.
Finally from obscenity sprung
mystery. For Pat's parents Mary and Pat, Sr. there were unanswered
questions.
Why were they fed lies?
Why were Pat's clothes and
equipment burned at the scene?
Why wasn't Kevin told the truth
at the scene?
What happened to Pat's journal,
that he had kept with him for years?
To pressure army investigators,
Mary and Pat, Sr. went public about Pat's true feelings about
the war in Iraq (he thought it was illegal) and his growing questioning
about the Bush "war on terror."
Now Pat's brother Kevin has
broken his silence as well. Kevin has written a brilliant piece
that should be distributed in front of every army recruitment
center and sent to every person who wears the uniform.
I don't agree with every word,
but that's hardly the point: Kevin, like Pat, represents a growing
surge in this country against the machinery death and the lies
that grease its wheels. We have paid dearly for those lies. It's
time to bring the troops home now.
It is Pat's birthday on November
6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about
a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military.
He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once
we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership
and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction
not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us
without a voice... until we get out.
Much has happened since we
handed over our voice: 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.
Somehow America has become
a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns
everything that it is.
Somehow our elected leaders
were subverting international law and humanity by setting up
secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people,
secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them
with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy
of torture became the fault of a few "bad apples" in
the military. Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers
meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture
with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars,
or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It's interesting
that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about
a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as
his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if
it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into
the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.
Somehow the more soldiers that
die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.
Somehow American leadership,
whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading
a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor
of its soldiers on the ground.
Somehow those afraid to fight
an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers
to die for an illegal invasion they started.
Somehow faking character, virtue
and strength is tolerated.
Somehow profiting from tragedy
and horror is tolerated.
Somehow the death of tens,
if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.
Somehow subversion of the Bill
of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.
Somehow suspension of Habeas
Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.
Somehow torture is tolerated.
Somehow lying is tolerated.
Somehow reason is being discarded
for faith, dogma, and nonsense. Somehow American leadership
managed to create a more dangerous world.
Somehow a narrative is more
important than reality.
Somehow America has become
a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns
everything that it is.
Somehow the most reasonable,
trusted and respected country in the world has become one of
the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries
in the world.
Somehow being politically informed,
diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active
ignorance.
Somehow the same incompetent,
narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still
in charge of this country.
Somehow this is tolerated.
Somehow nobody is accountable
for this. In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the
policy of the people. So don't be shocked when our grandkids
bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the
world and to humanity. Most likely, they will come to know that
"somehow" was nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference,
leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged parasites.
Luckily this country is still
a democracy.
People still have a voice.
People still can take action.
It can start after Pat's birthday.
Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,
Kevin Tillman
Now
Available
from CounterPunch Books!
The Case
Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
CounterPunch
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