it wasn't him being lied to in a war zone that is at issue. EVERYONE was lied to and the tillman's were stonewalled from the truth till the inspector general and family pressure became too much and they were able to bring their case before a congressional committee that wasn't a rubber stamp for the administration.
So Mr. Tillman was in a bubble? His parents would not send him an E-mail or a phone call or a letter? Once he was home the truth came out. If the government wanted to keep it quiet we would never have known what happened.
"I mean, it's horrible that Pat was dead. Absolutely horrible. But it hurts even more to know that it was one of our own guys that did it . . .," one soldier told Jones. "We just, we didn't want to get anything, you know, bad said about the regiment or anything like that. ... We didn't want the world finding out what actually happened."sounds more like a textbook coverup than anything.
Again it sounds like it was done on the local level not the higher up's so the Government did not lie the local command lied and that lie was sent up the line to the press that carried it without looking into it. Sounds to me like the lazy press is at it again.
what is normally done and what is right are 2 very different things. i'll stick with truth, you stick with business as usual, or business as in the 1940's.
The choices are tell the man the truth and risk reprisals of some kind or keep it quiet until he is back in the world. My people are under enough pressure just being in combat why would I want to add to that? You take a real world situation and make an academic argument as if there is no consequences to the decision. Peoples lives are at risk.
and you can't claim that tillman's celebrity didn't exist when commenting about your personal football watching. tillman was a celebrity because people who didn't watch football were blanketed with the reports of his service. then acknowledge his celebrity only for your own partisan put-down. the 2 statements that are in contradiction are as follows...
This makes my point about the lazy press. They touted his death because he was a celeb, I learned about him after his death ftom the press reports and my thought was how many people died that day but this man was getting all the press time.
like i said palladin, if you want to side with liars, feel free. but don't try to think that you are doing anything even a hair more noble than that.
That is the difference you see it as siding with liars while I see it as a commander trying to reduce the risk to the rest of his people. The press followed it and reported it without any investigation of the facts. Since the military did not make any statements that propitiated the lie or hide the truth I don’t see where the government is to blame. It looks more to me that the lazy press is trying to cover its breezy butt.
The Army that Pat Tillman honored by his enlistment failed to honor his service and sacrifice, in every way possible. The soldiers and immediate superiors who served with him during his last tour should not just be ashamed, they should be court-martialed & mustered out dishonorably at minimum. Those higher up the chain of command who knew the lie and allowed it to go unchallenged should be court-martialed as well. If what they did isn't dereliction of duty, I don't know what would qualify. They were unworthy of serving alongside, let alone commanding, a soldier such as Tillman and showed a cowardice in the aftermath of his death that was shameful and pathetic.
I would suggest you discuss this with some people in the military and maybe you will understand why things are done the way they are. As a civilian you don't seem to understand because you don't live with them. The mindset is much different than in the civillian world.
Much as I want to give the troops the benefit of the doubt, this doesn't sound at all like simply 'protecting' his brother or anyone else, unless you count the guys who screwed up & killed him. For a supposed 'elite' Ranger unit, clear thinking and discipline seemed to be in rather short supply that day, both before and after he was killed. God forbid that unit was the best the Army could put on the ground.
The people that did the FFI have to deal with the fact that they killed someone in the family, I am willing to bet they are no longer in the military or have learned to deal with a mistake that never goes away.
These people were Spec Ops on their first assignment, peoeple make mistakes and poop happens. To go from civilian to hard core special operations does not happen in the first year or two. For example my first mission I took one in the chest at age 20 just before my 21st birthday. I am 51 now and still suffer from the shooting, I also see all the people that have died in my short time in the military just before I sleep each night. Life is not like the movies, since you have not idea what it is like let me paint a picture for you.
I went throgh Marine Corps boot camp, three months with 77 training days. Then I went through Infantry Trainig School. 35 days with 25 days of trainig. From there I went to my first overseas assignment while waiitng for a class opening for more schools. Force recon was fun but most of the time I was getting on the job training. I graduated boot camp in March and in my firt operation in September where I was shot in a fire fight. Recuperated from that in only 6 weeks and got a class at army jump school then went to another school arround San Diego, then went to Quantico for another school. Three years of schooling got me ready for my next operation. did not get shot or get any of my people killed. a month later I was in another operation. This is the life we live. But just because you finish schools until you get into the field you don't know squat. If one that was into the life can admit that people don't know until they get a few missions under their belt how can you who have no experience in the life make any serious statements that have any meaning.
