The Legacy of Pat Tillman, American War Hero

Not too many people give up a multi-million dollar contract to go fight, and die, for their country, but that is just what Pat Tillman did. After 9/11, he gave up a 3.6 million dollar contract extension with the Arizona Cardinals and joined the elite Army Rangers. In 2002, he was killed in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan. All the same, he is a hero who fought in a heroic war.

Our soldiers in Iraq are heroes too, but the political decision to go to war, as well as other decisions of the current adminstration, was far from heroic. Pat's brother, Kevin, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, apparently agrees.

In a condemnation of the rationale for the Iraq war and Bush's leadership, he writes on Truthdig.com:

"Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes,.... 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,...."

He notes that the elections on November 7 come just a day after his late brother's birthday: "Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat's birthday,...."

I couldn't agree more with Kevin Tillman. He reminds us that you can support your country and its military, and at the same time oppose your country's leadership and decisions. In fact sometimes to support your country, you have to oppose the leadership if it is hurting the very country you love.

You can read the full article, written by Kevin Tillman, at http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/

Parts of this blog entry summarize and reword phrases from an AP article by Dan De Luce.