Wednesday, March 28, 2007

A Double-Sided Tragedy

It has been three years and five investigations since the death of Pat Tillman. With the recent news of his family pushing for a Congressional Hearing I feel like I need to talk about this because it really bothers me.

I'm sure that you all remember when the U.S. military first announced the tragic passing of Pat Tillman. His story inspired many and he won the respect of everyone. But if you recall the military first announced his death as a heroic firefight/charge where he led a group of soldiers into enemy fire and was tragically killed. They even went as far as to try to award him a silver star. Not much later they announced that he actually died of friendly fire.

Ok, so there is a huge difference between dying from friendly fire and dying heroically. Granted, to die in any way serving your country is heroic and deserves the respect of all. However, what the hell were they thinking with the cover up? Military officials now claim that they were unsure at the time the first announcement was released. So if you are unsure why would you paint the dramatic heroic picture and even try to award him for it? Something just seems fishy and terribly wrong here, and I don't blame the family at all for not being satisfied.

The military/gov't have taken a tragedy, terrible as it is, and have made a huge mess out of it. I think the family deserves a congressional hearing and have every rite to be upset. Because this even upsets me and it should probably upset you rather you knew him, or were a fan, or even if you weren't.

The military tried to use their son and the hero of many as a political pawn...Now, I don't know Pat Tillman personally, but I can almost guarantee that judging by the person that he seemed to be, the last thing that he would want would to be used in an act of political dishonesty. Something just tells me that Mr. Pat Tillman wasn't too big on dishonesty. People die of friendly fire all the time, it is just a part of war. But as my man Jim Rome says:

"The cover-up is always worse than the crime"

2 comments:

SAMO said...

I heard Jim Rome yesterday rant about this as well...on his radio show. It is unfortunate that the cover up happened. Now Pat Tillman will be remembered somewhat for this. But still, the man is a hero and died serving his country. He will be revered by me, for as long as I live.

grittysquirrels said...

Yea...Regardless of how you die serving your country you are a hero in my opinion. However, the cover-up really is a whole new tragedy in itself and it really bothers me.