Pat Tillman is Still Dead

The Army is yet again investigating the death of Pat Tillman, who is perhaps the highest profile casualty in the BushCheney’s wars. You may recall that this National Football League star gave up his pro contract to serve his country in the wake of the 9-11 attacks and died as the result of “friendly fire” during a 2004 firefight in Afghanistan.

The story of his death has changed dramatically, from brave hero leading his men into hostile fire to unfortunate accident of war. Tillman’s family has been outraged by the cynical use of their dead son as an icon by BushCheney. The new investigation focuses on criminal negligence by Tillman’s fellow soldiers involving their failure to properly identify their target before opening fire.

I’m always uneasy about this kind of investigation. The chaos of combat forces soldiers to make split-second, often lethal decisions. It’s a difficult environment, to be sure, but that’s what soldiers are trained for. They are always supposed to identify targets before shooting at them. Otherwise, they are putting people at risk unnecessarily. Perhaps this investigation will be better than the last few. Maybe the Tillman family will get some straight answers this time.

Even if the investigation does determine whether anyone is criminally liable for Tillman’s death, it won’t answer all the questions about his death and the distortions that were issued in its wake. ReddHedd at Firedoglake is asking questions that the new investigation is unlikely to address:

“...Of course there needs to be a thorough investigation into Pat Tillman's death. We owe that to his family, and if gross negligence was involved, those responsible need to be held to account. That goes without saying.

But those responsible for spinning out the lies to a grieving family -- lies that they also fed to the public and the press in a close campaign season -- need some exploration as well. Who gave the orders to silence the Rangers on the ground? Who gave the orders to burn Tillman's gear? Who gave the orders to falsify information contained on Tillman's Silver Star citation -- because it now appears that some of the information in the chain of events does not match up with later stories? Who fed Tori Clark the information she spewed from the press podium at the DoD? Who fed it to Donald Rumsfeld? Did Rumsfeld order this to be propgandized -- or did that come from the President's campaign staff, including from Karl Rove?

Who gave the orders to start all of this ass covering -- up the line to the President of the United States?

And who made the decision for the President to use Pat Tillman as a campaign prop in Arizona -- when the taped message the President gave was a lie? And did the President know at the time that his lovely public words about a fallen American hero were nothing but lies -- and gave the taped message anyway? If not, has anyone been held to account for feeding the President false information that he publicly stated about the Tillman matter -- and if so, who has been held to account and by what means?...”

Tillman’s death is one of the many tragedies of BushCheney’s wars. The lies and distortions compound the loss.