What's your take on Kevin Tillman's letter?, Pat Tillman's brother... Options

[cupcake]

After Pat’s Birthday
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601..._pats_birthday/
Posted on Oct 19, 2006
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 got 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.

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

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.

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.

Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

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.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

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.

Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.

Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.

Somehow this is tolerated.

Somehow nobody is accountable for this.

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

_______________________________________________________

[cupcake]

pull all conventional units out of iraq. we are only creating more enemies with each passing day. also the violence is growing with multiplicity. it's worse now than it was 2 years ago for fuck sake!

people say "well then you'll have a country of terrorists who hate us!" yeah so? like we don't already?

and who are you to say they won't have an all out civil war and come up with a decent govt?

I think we should let them fight it out, and after gaining a decent assessment of which side is the more moderate (or at least democratic) start funding and supporting them via SF/SOCOM/CIA. just like we did with the northern alliance. help them win...because WE ain't gonna win jackshit!

keep a strong naval presence in the gulf...ARGs, MEUs, etc. but keep them on the water for contingencies. like we have for the past 14 years.

but let the iraqis have their own country. with help dealt by extreme prejudice.

and start focusing our resources where they should have been all along...on the country-less al queda network.

those guys blowing us up in iraq aren't terrorists. they are you and me if some shitheads invaded our country. they are "red dawn". get out of their country and they'll chill the fuck out.

al queda however, will not.

actually let SF live up to de oppresso libre do their fuckin jobs instead of saddling them with shithead doorkicker grunt missions. obviously that shit don't work.

[Hartmann]

pull all conventional units out of iraq. we are only creating more enemies with each passing day. also the violence is growing with multiplicity. it's worse now than it was 2 years ago for fuck sake!

people say "well then you'll have a country of terrorists who hate us!" yeah so? like we don't already?

and who are you to say they won't have an all out civil war and come up with a decent govt?

I think we should let them fight it out, and after gaining a decent assessment of which side is the more moderate (or at least democratic) start funding and supporting them via SF/SOCOM/CIA. just like we did with the northern alliance. help them win...because WE ain't gonna win jackshit!

keep a strong naval presence in the gulf...ARGs, MEUs, etc. but keep them on the water for contingencies. like we have for the past 14 years.

but let the iraqis have their own country. with help dealt by extreme prejudice.

and start focusing our resources where they should have been all along...on the country-less al queda network.

those guys blowing us up in iraq aren't terrorists. they are you and me if some shitheads invaded our country. they are "red dawn". get out of their country and they'll chill the fuck out.

al queda however, will not.

actually let SF live up to de oppresso libre do their fuckin jobs instead of saddling them with shithead doorkicker grunt missions. obviously that shit don't work.

Amen. We are not police officers nor are we an occupational force.

However, I do not think a change of administration will cause this to happen. I think this is on a military level. Yes, the president has a little to do with tactics but the generals should be making some decisions on their own, I mean, they have their stars for a reason.