I was on the treadmill at the gym when I saw the BBC story about Pat Tillman on the 6:00PM news. In all honesty I considered cutting the workout short and heading home to give it a post while everything was still fresh in my mind, but I didn’t, I kept plodding along on the treadmill, going over in my mind the great potential this had for a rant of proportions hitherto unseen on the left side of the stage — but the more I thought about it the more I realized that it is really more deserving of compassion, and pity, than a prodigious rant.
Compassion because another patriotic American family, and another patriotic American man with high ideals, killed in the performance of what he perceived his duty to be, have been used as nothing more than a pawns in the Bush “War on Terror”tm. At a time not long after the torture and abuse scandal known as Abu Graib was making headlines in the United States and around the world an all American hero who turned down a multi-million dollar professional football contract to do his duty was gunned down while storming the enemy - it was immediate news, and he, and his death, became a new American symbol of all that was good, and right, with the United States of America. Now the world, and Tillman’s family, know what really happened - it was a sham. In the words of his father it is a lie, one that most certainly appears to be a yet another story (remember Jessica Lynch?) fabricated by a military that badly needed a hero and wanted to hide the fact that Pat Tillman had been shot by friendly fire, and, if I may be so bold as to hazard a guess, a military that ever so badly needed something, anything, to take the focus off their PR problems.
Pity for those who have been duped, conned, jerked around, and outright lied to as part of the Bush “War on Terror”tm. Those who have been sold this little bottle of snake oil number in the millions, they include everyone from the young men and women who may have fallen prey to the recruitment potential this particular piece of fiction provided for the military to (Right)WingNuts like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Neil Boortz, Michael Savage, and uber-rightie Mark Levin, who willingly parroted to the masses the story they were given about the brave young American soldier who willingly made the ultimate sacrifice for his country.
“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. (George Orwell, 1984, Chapter 3)
At at this point one has to wonder how many people, be they Mr. & Mrs Average American citizen, (Right)WingNut radio host, or uber-rightie and defender of the faith, will be able to listen to any statement from the Pentagon, or the American military, about anything, and believe them?
Hey, let’s play “Anticipate The Response”!
a) Stageleft, it doesn’t matter that he was killed by friendly fire and that they lied about it, because it was all in the service of the War On Terror, all for the Greater Good, and Pat would have been proud to have his death marketed that way.
b) It’s probably a lie perpetrated by the rotten American hating leftist commie liberal media cabal. And I’m not holding my breath for your apology.
c) I noticed you didn’t get this excited when it was proven that Yassir Arafat wasn’t poisoned! THAT didn’t get the kind of play in your rotten American hating leftist commie liberal blog, did it?
d) Oh YEAH? What about Oil for Food?
e) How DARE you question a decision by our military? Just thank your lucky stars they’re protecing you against those Canada-hating Arab terrorist waiting to invade your little pisspot of a country and only held in check by their terror of our might, you American hating leftist commie liberal.
Did I miss any?