Even heroes know an illegal war when they see one.
Remember Pat Tillman? He was the pro football player who gave up a huge salary to enlist in the Army after 9-11.
Rumsfeld and the Republican administration used his death shamelessly in their huge PR effort to "sell" the war.
They said he went down ala Rambo, bravely holding off a band of bloodthirsty, freedom hating "terrists" against terrible odds. (A simple search reveals that there are still dozens of conservative sites and blogs still using Tillman as an icon to support the war.)
It was only several weeks later that the Pentagon revealed the inconvenient fact (quietly) that he was actually killed by by his own Army Ranger platoon in Afghanistan on April 22,2004. Tillman was the only fatality.
That was embarassing enough for the Republicans who rushed to use his tragic death as a sales tool, but now we find out there's more to the story.
The very private Tillmans have revealed a picture of Pat profoundly at odds with the GI Joe image created by Pentagon spinmeisters and their media stenographers. As the Chronicle put it, family and friends are now unveiling "a side of Pat Tillman not widely known--a fiercely independent thinker who enlisted, fought and died in service to his country yet was critical of President Bush and opposed the war in Iraq, where he served a tour of duty. He was an avid reader whose interests ranged from history books...to works of leftist Noam Chomsky, a favorite author." Tillman had very unembedded feelings about the Iraq War. His close friend Army Spec. Russell Baer remembered, "I can see it like a movie screen. We were outside of [an Iraqi city] watching as bombs were dropping on the town.... We were talking. And Pat said, 'You know, this war is so f***ing illegal.' And we all said, 'Yeah.' That's who he was. He totally was against Bush." With these revelations, Pat Tillman the PR icon joins WMD and Al Qaeda connections on the heap of lies used to sell the Iraq War.Via TBOGG
posted by The Inside Dope @ 11/14/2005
7 comments
7 Comments:
The "terrists" are out there, and thanks to Bush's policies and arrogance, there's more of them than ever. I recently heard someone mention on TV that a reporter had managed to get to speak to an insurgent leader in Bahgdad and when asked where he got his recruits for suicide bombings and other attacks on our soldiers, he said that he just kept track of who they let out of Abu Garaib and other torture prisons, most of which were ordinary Iraqis caught up in wholesale sweeps. They were not radicals before, but the experience had made "terrists" out of them.
Thanks George.
Bush says the only one who lied about the war was "what's his name?" The guy we were trying to find that we still don't have in custody yet???
Bush says he didn't lie - but others did.... He sounds pretty desperate on his sound bytes these days.
What a lot of crap, eh?
Imagine that, GW accusing someone of "playing politics" with the war. HA!
IF you want to be an obnoxious jerk, you're perfectly free to do it in the public square, and you probably do so often. But not here, OK? What's so hard to understand?
what do you all have against this war anyways? IF it was for oil (which it's OBVIOUSLY not), we all need that, no? or how about "iraqi connections to al qaeda"? muslims are muslims... if they're not speaking out against the MUSLIM perpetrators, they're secretly saying "take that, america". if you disagree, you need to take your head out of the sand--no pun intended. i'd really hate for a society to become so liberal that it tolerates the kind of anti-west hatred alive in so many islamists (including those in the united states that are protected by free-speech laws). maybe it'll take the head of one of your own leftist buddies being sawn off while on american soil to open your eyes. i should hope it doesn't come to that though.
You're out to lunch, but I'll waste my time pointing out the obvious to you anyway, not that it'll do any good. You seem to have your head lodged in some comic book action hero fantasy so far it's a lost cause.
>what do you all have against this war anyways?
Well, it's illegal, unnecessary, is bleeding our country white both financially, in blood and suffering, in dividing the country and in setting the world against us and making us MORE likely to be attacked, not less.
And that's just for starters.
>IF it was for oil (which it's OBVIOUSLY not), we all need that, no?
Tell me, does capitalizing something make it so? What are you basing your curious idea that the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with oil? I mean, two huge oil industry guys in the White House, all that oil in Iraq, letting the entire country be looted and robbed blind while doing nothing to prevent it, yet the first thing they did was post guards around teh Oil Ministry?
Who's the naive dupe?
And while you say it's "OBVIOUSLY" not about oil, you then turn 180 degrees and all but admit it, and then argue that it's ok because we need oil.
A real great argument.
So, we need oil, and we should just go around the globe invading and stealing all the oil we want?
If you believe that, then why in the hell isn't YOUR ass over in Iraq right now risking your life for it?
Or are you one of the 101st Fighting Keyboard Brigade, willing to send others to their deaths but too old, fat, chicken, or hypocritical to serve yourself for what you believe in?
>or how about "iraqi connections to al qaeda"?
How about it? Even BUSH himself has stated that there's NO CONNECTION. Are you really that stupid? You haven't heard yet?
THERE IS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN IRAQ or SADAAM and Al Queda. Period.
Bin Laden HATES Sadaam Hussein. They're sworn enemies. Iraq was not an islamic state and bin Laden felt that Hussein was an infidel.
They were enemies, not allies. Again, you demonstrate your vast ignorance of history. This has been reported many times by both left and right. It is indisputable fact and not even argued seriously by anyone even on the right.
>muslims are muslims... if they're not speaking out against the MUSLIM perpetrators, they're secretly saying "take that, america".
And..??? For this you're willing to spend hundreds of billions and send young men and women to their deaths? Because you can't stand imagining that someone is saying "Take that America."??
You're nuts.
>if you disagree, you need to take your head out of the sand--no pun intended.
Thank God. It would have been a really unfunny pun.
>i'd really hate for a society to become so liberal that it tolerates the kind of anti-west hatred alive in so many islamists (including those in the united states that are protected by free-speech laws).
Well, how do you propose to NOT tolerate it? You know, right now, there are millions and millions of people who would gladly die to fight the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
And it's millions MORE than thee were on 9-10-01.
We've made the situation worse and the only country benefiting from this nightmare is Iran, for whom it's meant much more power and influence in the region.
Hussein hated Iran and always kept them in check. Now no one is.
So tell us again, since there are literally millions of people who hate the policies of our current government, with our actions creating millions more daily, just how you propose to not "tolerate" it?
What do you want OTHER people to do? Go kill every last one of them?
Again, you're nuts. Sorry, but that's a fact.
>maybe it'll take the head of one of your own leftist buddies being sawn off while on american soil to open your eyes. i should hope it doesn't come to that though.
Well pard, on that we're in agreement.
But if there's any head sawing going on on American soil, you can thank good old George W. and the policies and ineptitude of those around him for bringing it to pass.
If you had a single brain cell rattling around in your head, you'd realize that Bush has gotten us in far over our head, in an unwinnable war, against a mythical enemy which you couldn't begin to accurately identify, and they've gotten you so full of BULLSHIT misinformation and fear that you'll cheer them on as they march us all over a cliff.
I sincerely hope you make the effort to get some real information and educate yourself. Because frankly, your attitude and ignorance is embarassing.
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