How American Heroes Die ... Twice.
Ever noticed how some stories are not big news? There is a story to be told but nobody is interested enough to really tell it? Such a story just surfaced Monday, when it was revealed that Pat Tillman's family had several issues with the army's investigation into Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan in April 2004.
But that is not the real story. The real story is the abuse of media power by the Pentagon. Remember the big news-topic of April and May 2004? Yes? No? It was the pictures from Abu Ghraib, and the news was not good. America was (and still is) loosing the war in Iraq, but at least one could believe that America was helping Iraq on its way to democracy.
So what better to come along than the story of a true hero, one that was killed fighting an enemy of coward terrorists? One that gave up a privileged live to serve his duty to his country? One hero that truly stood principles. Such as honor and dignity and liberty for all.
Guess what, that story came around. Told by the Pentagon, and quickly picked up by the media. Our true hero, dying fighting the enemy. And some of the heroism fell on the fellow members of our forces. And thus a story was born in order to take away the blemishes form our armed forces.
It took about a month until first reports occurred that our hero may have died in a friendly fire incident. (You can read that report here.) It doesn't make the soldier less of a hero, he died fighting for his country. But now even the hero's family is convinced that details of his death were withheld and that they were deceived by the Pentagon. The top rank in the military knew that he died in a friendly fire incident, but withheld the truth until after his funeral service, which was nationally televised. All that, it now appears, was a staged PR stunt in order to stop suspicion about our armed forces, which surely couldn't be abusers of defenseless prisoners when they had such heroes in their ranks. (Good for our souls or are we also potential abusers? Or murderers? Or permit such abuse in our name?)
The Pentagon and the army brass (and probably the political elite) abused a true hero for political and ideological gain. Abusing his noble intentions for political games. Having his name appear in a big political lie. They put his name into the dirt, forever tarnishing his name. Our hero, in the gutter.
Murdered a second time.
But that is not the real story. The real story is the abuse of media power by the Pentagon. Remember the big news-topic of April and May 2004? Yes? No? It was the pictures from Abu Ghraib, and the news was not good. America was (and still is) loosing the war in Iraq, but at least one could believe that America was helping Iraq on its way to democracy.
So what better to come along than the story of a true hero, one that was killed fighting an enemy of coward terrorists? One that gave up a privileged live to serve his duty to his country? One hero that truly stood principles. Such as honor and dignity and liberty for all.
Guess what, that story came around. Told by the Pentagon, and quickly picked up by the media. Our true hero, dying fighting the enemy. And some of the heroism fell on the fellow members of our forces. And thus a story was born in order to take away the blemishes form our armed forces.
It took about a month until first reports occurred that our hero may have died in a friendly fire incident. (You can read that report here.) It doesn't make the soldier less of a hero, he died fighting for his country. But now even the hero's family is convinced that details of his death were withheld and that they were deceived by the Pentagon. The top rank in the military knew that he died in a friendly fire incident, but withheld the truth until after his funeral service, which was nationally televised. All that, it now appears, was a staged PR stunt in order to stop suspicion about our armed forces, which surely couldn't be abusers of defenseless prisoners when they had such heroes in their ranks. (Good for our souls or are we also potential abusers? Or murderers? Or permit such abuse in our name?)
The Pentagon and the army brass (and probably the political elite) abused a true hero for political and ideological gain. Abusing his noble intentions for political games. Having his name appear in a big political lie. They put his name into the dirt, forever tarnishing his name. Our hero, in the gutter.
Murdered a second time.
posted by PW at 1:30 AM
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