Manufacturing American heroes: the Tillman myth

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Monday May 31, 2004 11:53 by End Zone

I got a letter from the government
the other day
I opened and read it
it said they were suckers
they wanted me for their army or whatever

- Tricky

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,118064,00.html

Fox News was of course more than happy at the time to manufacture the story of how Tillmans patrol had been attacked by Afghan resistance.

Local officials gave Fox News the "enemy" side of it. An area militia commander claimed there were 15 fighters. There's no confirmation of that but considering the casualties on the U.S. side that sounds right. It's reported some of them were local Afghans. Others were Central Asian and Arab — the sort of guys who are "rank and file" Al Qaeda (search) members. The folks Pat Tillman left his U.S. life behind to tangle with after the atrocity of Sept. 11.

The local commander also told us nine of the enemy were killed.

The killing of Pat Tillman hit all the troops in Afghanistan hard for a couple of reasons. First, of course, there's the incredible selfless sacrifice that he embodies, casting aside a relatively cushy multimillion-dollar pro sport life for climbing around craggy mountains searching for guys in beards with guns. As Specialist John Bushnell from Fort Bragg (search), California, told me, "That was a lot money and a good career he gave up. ... He's a real American hero."

When are Fox going to print a retraction of their fabrication?

http://www.fallenheroesmemorial.com/oef/profiles/tillmanpatrickd.html

Military Officials conceded at the weekend that a former American football star, who left his multimillion-dollar career to join the armed forces after the 11 September attacks and was killed in action in Afghanistan last month, was probably a victim of "friendly fire".

It now appears that an Afghan soldier who was alongside Cpl Tillman as they returned to the first unit was mistaken as an enemy combatant by one of the US soldiers and fired upon. Other US soldiers began shooting in the same direction, at which point Cpl Tillman was fatally wounded. It seems, moreover, that there were no enemy soldiers in the vicinity at the time.

http://www.strike-the-root.com/4/sat/sat8.html

". . . As an unrestricted free agent in 2002, he turned down a three-year, $3.6 million contract offer from the Cardinals" in order to go to work for Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and the other criminals. ("Former N.F.L. Player Killed in Afghanistan" by Kirk Semple, April 23, 2004)

Tillman is being celebrated as a hero by all the courtiers and regime-dupes. Nowadays the System has to confect its heroes out of unlikely material; really all you have to do is get killed, banged up, or captured, so long as you are serving the Empire when it happens. But in fact Tillman was no hero; he was a sucker.

A man who defends his country is not a sucker. He may well be a hero -- a real hero of the old-fashioned sort. But Tillman was not defending his country. He was promoting imperialism and criminal war. He had turned his fate over to evil men embarked on an evil enterprise. He threw his life away, but not for nothing. He threw it away for worse than nothing. He threw it away in the cause of imperialism and criminal war.