Bravery And Courage Doesn't Make It OK To Insult Either

Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich may be a brave and courageous man, deeply patriotic and a good soldiers, but he should be charged with conduct unbecoming of an officer and discharged for saying this to a mother of a fallen solider;

Lt. Col Kauzlarich told Mary Tillman that she "would never be satisfied because you're not a Christian." and "It must be hard to accept your son is worm dirt."

Kauzlarich said something similar to ESPN has summer to which Mary Tillman responded this;

“Well, this guy makes disparaging remarks about the fact that we’re not Christians, and the reason that we can’t put Pat to rest is because we’re not Christians… Oh, it has nothing to do with the fact that this whole thing is shady. But it is because we are not Christians… Pat may not have been what you call a Christian. He was about the best person I ever knew. I mean, he was just a good guy. He didn’t lie. He was very honest. He was very generous. He was very humble. I mean, he had an ego, but it was a healthy ego. It is like, everything those [people] are, he wasn’t.”

We are a secular nation. We do not mandate you to NOT be religious, we mandate you to respect those of us who aren't. Pat Tillman was not a pious Christian, at least not like those Christofascists on the right, but he went to war and fought for his country...HIS COUNTRY, NOT GOD! He deserves respect. This is blatently disrespectful to him and his family and should NOT be condoned.

This man is an example of what's wrong with not only America, but with Christianity and I want no part of a religion, or a country, where this is ok.

Bravery And Courage Doesn't Make It OK To Lie

Rep. John Duncan (R-Tennessee) made a great comment during the House Government Oversight and Government Reform committee's hearing onto the death of Pat Tillman. Duncan commented that while the military should be held in high regard, it should not be "worshipped." He admitted that the Republican Party reveres the military so much that it ignores when it's wrong, similar to (and I would agree with him on this) how the Democrats react to labor unions.

The circumstances surrounding the aftermath of the death of Corporal Pat Tillman are just incredibly sad and incredibly frustrating. Just like the Iraq war that has come to define them, this administration fed us lies and tall tales to keep us from knowing the horrible truth; That some US Soldiers were cocky and unprofessional and accidentally killed a football star with a name recognizable by millions whose support and trust this administration needed to keep their blundered wars going.

The brave story of the football star who gave it all up to fight for America after 9/11 and died fighting is awe inspiring; I know when I heard it (and believed it) it inspired me. In the end, I've been had, we all have been had. The story the military told the media who told us was no more than a great work of fiction.

Spc. Bryan O'Neal, the last solider to see Pat Tillman alive knew the truth, but he testified before Congress that he was ordered by his superiors to keep the truth behind Tillman's death from his family, including Tillman's brother Kevin, who was nearby at the time of Pat's death.

Kevin Tillman, Pat's brother, summed it all up pretty nicely; The military was looking to cover it's ass at a time when their wars were going downhill fast and in an election year when a change at the White House would mean a chance at the Pentagon. Damaged by the Abu Gihrab torture scandal and stronger-than-expected insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Pentagon needed something to arouse nationalism and patriotism and keep the people behind them. The administration needed it too. To protect themselves, they lied, not just to us, but to the family of this American who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Those who refuse to accept the truth are going to argue that this is just another liberal attack on the military cause they hate the brave soldiers and want to defame them. I refer them to Congressman Duncan's remarks. I remind them that bravery and courage doesn't make it OK to lie.

Another Administration Fall Guy

If the Bush administration is good at anything, it's their ability to throw their own under a bus to save their own asses. Case in point; Scooter Libby on the Valerie Plame affair, now Monica Goodling and who knows who else in the prosecutor firing scandal, and apparently now former Major General Stanley McChrystal in the case of the Pat Tillman death.

Pat Tillman was a patriotic American who quit every boy's dream to fight for America. He disagreed with the President and was, from all accounts, a pretty liberal person, but did not make a big deal of it when he was alive. He did in Afghanistan three years ago in an embarrassing friendly fire incident that was pretty much well covered up. At the time of his death, it was reported the Army Ranger was killed in an enemy ambush and died a hero, (which he did anyway.)

Tillman's family wasn't told of the truth behind his death for weeks after the incident. McChrystal and others were charged with covering up the truth. Now, apparently, McChrystal warned the PRESIDENT of the possibility that Tillman died in a friendly fire incident weeks before he even told the family and long before Tillman was used as a political tool, which come on, you know he was.

Bush never specified the way Tillman died in any of the speeches he made, but you know what he was alluding to; that Tillman had died in an enemy ambush, that he died fighting Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Once again the administration successfully covers up and scandal and leaves someone else to take the fall for them. Goodling is the only smart one, she pleaded the fifth. She's getting off that sinking ship.

Still, it's a disgrace that a CIA agent was outed, a disgrace that members of the Justice Department used a clause in a piece of legislation meant to protect us to advance their political agenda, and an even bigger disgrace that they misrepresented the death of a good soldier and fine American because of how the truth may play…and let's not forget that Tillman died in 2004, while Bush was struggling to win reelection.