Courtesy the Tillman Family
Pat Tillman (left) and his brother Kevin stand in front of a Chinook helicopter in Saudi Arabia before their tour of duty as Army Rangers in Iraq in 2003.
After Pat’s Birthday
By Kevin Tillman
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 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. .............
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6 comments:
This was an incredible piece. Speaks volumes that it came from Pat Tillman's brother. I only hope that Olbermann or someone picks it up and gives it the national spotlight that it deserves. I had posted it on my blog, too -- came across your via the tags.
Cool blog - mind if I link to you?
Thx
of course i don't mind if you link to me! i'll link to you as well (NOT today, tomorrow or sunday i'll put it in).
i like the look of your blog (well i can do without the eye candy friday but hey, who am i???)
i agree i hope someone BIG picks this up. it's amazing. it's real and it's honorable.
i knew someone who did a tour in iraq as a marine. he and i got into it when he returned home. i backed down for him because he was there and i was not. it's not like me but i HAD to respect him. a while later he found out he had to GO BACK. he and i didn't get into it then. not because i backed down, but because he and i were in agreement by that time.
i am afraid. i am sad. i am horrified.
there are 30 something percent of our citizens that think what is going on is fine.
i don't understand that
The tide is turning, even down here in super patriot land a few of my Guard buddies have switched positions themselves saying we are screwed over there and need to get out. What scares them now is that Bush has screwed things up so bad that if a regional war starts we might get pulled right back in due to this country's drug of choice, oil, being threaten.
b b
the tide IS turning little by little, but is it too late?
what about the people who STILL think iraq had something to do with 9-11? there are still a ton of 'em.
Yeah, it may be too late. Either way this country has got to finish this roller coaster ride. I agree we need to get quickly out of Iraq and start moving to some type of energy independence so we can disconnect as much as possible from that region. I wish someone could convince me that some sort of decent conclusion will come to Bush's folly. But all the signs I see say its going to get much worse. No matter if we stay sending more troops we don't have or pulling out that wasp nest had been disturbed and a price will have to be paid.
As far as those idiots who still believe Iraq was connected to 9/11( my father-in-law is one) they are one of the reasons I will more than likely become an expatiate moving to Mexico or South America in the coming years.
b b
a price IS being paid and we will all continue to pay that price for years to come (many, i fear)
it will get worse.
what will the history books say?
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