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Remembering Pat Tillman
Topic Started: Oct 20 2006, 11:06 AM (236 Views)
QuirtEvans
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I Owe It All To John D'Oh
Cross-posted from WTF. I wonder how long it will take some people to start tossing muck at Tillman's brother.

After Pat's Birthday
By Kevin Tillman
Truthdig

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 get out.

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.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

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.

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.

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 of 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.

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
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
I'm sorry his brother died, but it is rather a ramble.
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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Mark
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HOLY CARP!!!
Source is a leftwing "news" site. :rolleyes2:

Can't find any other source for this story.

Nothing turned up on snopes.

Can anyone verify that this is real?

___.___
(_]===*
o 0
When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
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Kincaid
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HOLY CARP!!!
Assuming this is legitimate, this looks like the left's tactic of trying to put out critics that are "unassailable".

If true, we know where Mr. Tillman stands and I disagree with him.
Kincaid - disgusted Republican Partisan since 2006.
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Mark
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HOLY CARP!!!
And it is your right to do so! :thumb:
___.___
(_]===*
o 0
When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
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QuirtEvans
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I Owe It All To John D'Oh
If I'm remembering correctly, Pat Tillman was Special Forces. I wonder whether his brother was, too.

You are, of course, allowed to disagree with him. I just wonder how long it will be until someone here says that he's not supporting the troops, or, worse, calls him a traitor.
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
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Kincaid
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HOLY CARP!!!
Well, I guess you can say that he's supporting the troops even as he says they are involved in an illegal war. I wouldn't say that, however.
Kincaid - disgusted Republican Partisan since 2006.
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Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
QuirtEvans
Oct 20 2006, 04:14 PM
If I'm remembering correctly, Pat Tillman was Special Forces. I wonder whether his brother was, too.

You are, of course, allowed to disagree with him. I just wonder how long it will be until someone here says that he's not supporting the troops, or, worse, calls him a traitor.

Wrong.

Pat was a ranger.
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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apple
one of the angels
the guy who left a professional sports career and was killed by friendly fire. bless his soul

to be truthful, i'd be furious if i were Kevin.
it behooves me to behold
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Larry
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Mmmmmmm, pie!
Quote:
 
I just wonder how long it will be until someone here says that he's not supporting the troops, or, worse, calls him a traitor.


I won't call him a traitor, because he's over there doing his job. But don't even try to insinuate that he is representative of any sort of majority opinion among the soldiers. This came from a nutjob leftwing blog, where Rontuner gets *all* his information. Out of 150,000 soldiers, there will naturally be a few who don't have their lid screwed on tight. If you want to do some good reading, read what Cindy Sheehan's son's best friend in the military has to say.

Nah - the left wouldn't dream of that.........

Of the Pokatwat Tribe

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QuirtEvans
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I Owe It All To John D'Oh
Any time someone points to a soldier who is opposed to the war, you dismiss it as an aberration. And yet you accuse others of having closed minds and preconceived notions.

Irony abounds.
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
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OperaTenor
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Pisa-Carp
QuirtEvans
Oct 21 2006, 01:50 AM
Any time someone points to a soldier who is opposed to the war, you dismiss it as an aberration.  And yet you accuse others of having closed minds and preconceived notions.

Irony abounds.

No worries, Quirt. It was treated with dismissal when I posted it last night, too.

Remember Pat Tillman?

Posted Image

It's just the same old intolerance for criticism or difference of opinion.


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Larry
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Mmmmmmm, pie!
Quote:
 
It's just the same old intolerance for criticism or difference of opinion.


No, it isn't. It's the frustration from having to deal with people who get their "facts" from extremist leftwing fruitloop blogs where the opinions of the majority of soldiers are ignored as they cherry pick the ones who share their silly political ideology and then hold it up as representative of the norm. That is about as dishonest as it gets, and both of you know it.
Of the Pokatwat Tribe

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