Pat Tillman’s Super Bowl - Democratic Underground

kpete

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Sat Jan-31-09 01:19 PM
Original message

Pat Tillman’s Super Bowl

Edited on Sat Jan-31-09 01:37 PM by kpete

“Most members of that Committee haven’t the ethical sense to qualify for wiping Pat’s ass. Instead they kissed Donald Rumsfeld’s, Richard Meyers’, and John Abazaid’s. I’ll be coming back to this shameful and anemic display. It’s emblematic of not just Congress, but in particular of Democrats who continue to tip-toe around anything to do with the war as if they’re walking through a rattlesnake pit.”

Stan Goff
The Fog Of Fame: Pat Tillman as Everyone’s Political Football
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....59192.html

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Pat Tillman’s Super Bowl
By: emptywheel Saturday January 31, 2009 8:34 am

VIDEO TRIBUTE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSWh6fvsPYE&eurl=http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/01/31/pat-tillmans-super-bowl/

When the Arizona Cardinals take the field tomorrow, the most famous Cardinal will not be with them.

I speak, of course, of Corporal Pat Tillman, who left the NFL after 9/11 to serve in the Army Rangers. Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. For months after his death, he was used as a propaganda tool to glorify Bush's failed wars. The exposure of the truth behind Tillman's death has since turned him into a symbol of the duplicity of the Bush Administration, the fight for the truth, and the futility of the war itself.

Shortly after his death, the Bush Administration (already campaigning for the 04 election) pointed to his sacrifice. Karl Rove waxed, "How does our country continue to produce men and women like this." On May 1, 2004, Bush again focused on Tillman's sacrifice in a speech at the White House Correspondent's dinner.

The loss of Army Corporal Pat Tillman last week in Afghanistan brought home the sorrow that comes with every loss, and reminds us of the character of the men and women who serve on our behalf. Friends say that this young man saw the images of September the 11th, and seeing that evil, he felt called to defend America. He set aside a career in athletics and many things the world counts important: wealth and security and the acclaim of the crowds. He chose, instead, the rigors of Ranger training and the fellowship of soldiers and the hard duty in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Corporate Tillman asked for no special attention. He was modest because he knew there were many like him, making their own sacrifices. They fill the ranks of the Armed Forces. Every day, somewhere, they do brave and good things without notice. Their courage is usually seen only by their comrades, by those who long to be free, and by the enemy. They're willing to give up their lives, and when one is lost, a whole world of hopes and possibilities is lost with them.

This evening, we think of the families who grieve, and the families that wait on a loved one's safe return. We count ourselves lucky that this new generation of Americans is as brave and decent as any before it. (Applause.) And we honor with pride and wonder the men and women who carry the flag and the cause of the United States.

Not only did Bush invoke 9/11 in his statements in spite of DOD insistence that there was no support for such a statement, but he neglected to mention that DOD had already determined that Tillman was killed by friendly fire, a heroic but pointless sacrifice that perhaps better embodies the stupidity of Bush's wars.

more at:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/01/31/pat-tillmans-super-bowl/#more-36686

I raise Tillman today because, as his mother Mary pointed out in an interview last spring, no one has yet been held accountable for turning Tillman's death into a propaganda fiction.

And there is just—the bottom line is, no one has been held accountable for anything. There have been people that have had some slaps on the wrist for doing certain things, but—and some people have just been scapegoated.

(snip)

I would like someone to be held accountable. I’d like for them to discover and try to discover who was involved with this cover-up. It’s a horrible thing that they did. And I think that if people don’t see that, it’s very sad, because it means that we have been numbed to all the lies and deceptions that we’ve been faced with during these last eight years.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/22/mary_tillman_mother_of_slain_nfl

Tomorrow there will be other heroes wearing red--undoubtedly Spidey Fitzgerald, maybe, if he can elude Pittsburgh's blitzes, Kurt Warner. And, I suppose, it's appropriate that we get a fresh face like Fitzgerald to represent Arizona this year. It's a new year, a new President, there's much talk of looking forward.

But we should never forget the heroism and fight for truth that Pat Tillman and his family have come to represent.

more at:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/01/31/pat-tillmans-super-bowl/#more-36686