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.
My gut tells me that Pat thought more about the implications of this decision than Kevin did and now Kevin doesn't like the result. Buyer beware my friend.
Much has happened since we handed over our voice:
I love how he is making himself out to be a victim.
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.
A very disingenuous diatribe but most effective rhetoric.
Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.
A claim without specifics is unable to be verified or countered... when you're full of manure, bluff.
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.
Let us be clear about the difference between recent discoveries and recent innovations.
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.
I can tell you from personal experience the cards and pictures DO make a difference. And his discounting of it is a slap in the face to everyone too young to help but tried in their own way.
Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.
A claim without proof.
Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.
This is absolutely nothing new.
Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.
What invasion is he talking about?
Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.
Nothin new to American politics.
Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.
Hollywood is doing nothing the Roman playwrights, Greek authors or even Shakespeare himself did... why should corporations be any different?
Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.
Its called war and people die. Not fighting would be a far worse crime.
Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.
In war the laws are silent, even the ancient Romans on whose example our republic was founded even knew this.
Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.
OPSEC and PERSEC.
Somehow torture is tolerated.
When in Rome do as the Romans.
Somehow lying is tolerated.
Show me a politician who isn't a liar.
Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.
Nations are built on myths and often the myth is more significant and important and vital than the actual reality.
Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.
The seeds of this problem go back to 1950 when Sayed Qtub came to study in Greeley, Colorado.
Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.
This says nothing... a narrative is simply someone talking about what is happening and can reflect reality as well as myth.
Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.
This again says nothing, I ask for specifics and would counter that in fact we are projecting what we really are and that Mr Tillman's heartburn is that he is having a crises of unrealised expectations since the reality of America is not synonymous with the myth of America.
Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.
I hadn't realised the Swiss had angered anyone.
Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.
This has occured since the days of radio and culminated in TV. Since politicians began campaigning on TV style has always taken precedence over substance. The first tangible example I can give you is the Kennedy V Nixon debate in the 50's.
Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.
Baseless accusations in a country where the rule of law and a presumption of innocence run counter to his claims.
Somehow this is tolerated.
When the sheep are fat they don't care how loud the dog barks.
Somehow nobody is accountable for this.
There will always be a scapegoat, just wait a minute.
In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don’t be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most likely, they will come to know that “somehow” was nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference, leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged parasites.
Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat’s birthday.
Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,
Kevin Tillman