Recently released this week was the report on Pat Tillman’s friendly fire death and the disinformation campaign the Army presented to immortalize him as the next “Private Ryan.”  More to the point as the next Jessica Lynch.

Pat, like Jessica was used to present a tragic yet heroic tale to inspire people, until the story, Like Jessica’s unraveled and the truth was released:  Pat was tragically killed by friendly fire.

First of all, friendly fire happens.  It always has, and in war it always will.  It is an unfortunate side effect of war that when imperfect humans are performing high stress missions in dangerous situations, mistakes will be made.

Pat was the sad recipient of such a mistake.  There are numerous sites detailing his life and his heroism so I will defer to those.  What concerns me is Kevin, Pat’s brother.

Keven wrote this letter which slams the war and Bush, and while I empathize for his obvious pain and anger, pissed me off in a few sections.  So here is his letter with a few of my comments in line.

After Pat’s Birthday

By Kevin Tillman

Editor’s note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document.

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 got out. 

Not true.  Though maybe it depends on the definition.  When you say voice, if you mean the ability to speak your opinion and thoughts, you still have a voice.  Many military personnel blog constantly.  Bryan Suits did radio calls from Iraq.  Granted your 1st Amendment rights are limited by security and such, but they are not removed.  But yes they are restricted and this is something you knew upon enlistment.

If you say voice and you mean the ability to demand answers, you still have a voice.  All services have complaint systems and a chain of command to make inquiries and express concerns.

But if you say voice and you mean the ability to determine what orders you will follow, and to demand a say in the shaping of the war, then yea sorry, your “voice’ is limited.  Your oath of enlistment requires your obedience and your failure to obey in battle could cost others lives.

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.

All of the above really.

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.

Please.  Some of what he says may have roots in truth, but the paragraph is a Democrat talking point. 

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.

Kevin…Piss off.  Right there you lose me.  Would you rather the soldiers receive the hate letters that some idiotic lefties sent?  The get well and PS I hope you die cards sent to a soldier at Walter Reed? And who gave you the right to speak for all mean and women over there and determine what they feel about care packages they receive?  Who gave you the right to tell me a sticker or a flag on my car is not worth my time to have it there?

I have spoken to troops who were deployed and they talked happily of the pick me up they got from the packages and cards.  How they were proud of their service knowing they were a source of pride back home.

Yea, war is hell, we got it.  People die and often in horrible brutal fashions.  And no, a box of girl scout cookies, or a kindergärtner’s picture cannot not remove that grim reality.

But to the little girl or boy who meant every crayon stroke of the picture, whose relatives might also be in harms way and this is there way of coping, it means everything to take the product of their hands and say thank you, we love you and come home soon. 

I’m sorry you are too much of a petulant whiny jackass to appreciate a little f***ing kindness and love from a poor kid, who had no idea you were going to wipe your ass on their gift, and imply they are stupid and wasting your precious time.

Note: This next bit is clearly clipped out of the DNC and MoveOn.org talking points, so I put them in bullet format.

• 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 off 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.

I am so not even going to bother addressing that crap.

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

I am sorry for your loss, and for the hatred that loss has ignited in you.  But spitting in the faces of those who support the war and the troops, you are in effect spitting on your own fellow soldiers.

I pity you for the hatred that has consumed so much of your soul.

Your country did fail Pat and your family.  They tried to cover up the accident that killed your brother, and no apology will fix that.  No firing of generals will repay his life.

But neither will building a funeral pyre of bitterness and hatred in your heart, particularly when you target not your Country’s enemy or leaders, but your Country’s children and civilians for having the audacity to give a shit.

I could have excused any part of this tirade but that.  But dumping on little kids pisses me off.

And watch this video Kevin, and see why it matters to those little kids to write the soldiers.  It sure mattered to these kids:

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