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Pat Tillman became famous when he chose to join the military and forgo a new lucrative contract with the NFL. He was then killed in battle, hailed as a hero and then it turned out that he was killed by friendly fire.
A new documentary out today chronicles the story.
It turns out that Tillman became disillusioned with the war very quickly. He believed it was unjust.
On the day he was killed by his fellow troops it is now questioned whether any Al Queda were in the area at all. While being shot at Tillman screamed “I’m fucking Pat Tillman”. He was killed shortly after.
His brother, also a GI, was on the scene within minutes but by the time got there Pat’s diary where he wrote extensively about his feelings about the war, was burned.
Could it be that the poster boy for the war, a true thinking man, had become a huge potential embarassment for the powers that be? Could it be he had to be eliminated before he became a liability?
Tommy – Nah, as a former Infantry Lt., I’m afforded the knowldedge of things I’d rather not know. One, is something rightly termed the “fog of war.” Supposedly, of the 56,000 Americans who died in a ridiculously stupid Vietnam..uh, “conflict,” 8,000 were “friendly fire” deaths. This is a lie. Multiply it by 2. It happened – and will always happen – so much more than the chin stroking way architects want you to know. – MR
Imagine the fear, sand in your eyes, no sleep, and a 19-year old kid with an automatic rifle, and a walkie-talkie to call in air strikes on positions 50 meters away. Very messy business. – M
you’re saying impossible or unlikely?
unlikely, of course. it’s just that considering how common friendly fire incidents really are, and how relatively rare murder is, I’ve gotta say highly unlikely. Can we talk about something else, Tom? How about what a wonderful boxer I am? haha
I personally believe that he was killed accidentally, but a lot of people dishonored themselves with the cover-up that followed. Tillman was a complex and interesting man, and should have had a long and productive life. Just a tragedy.
My thoughts exactly and said better than I could.
This story just stinks.
We know about Pat because he was in a high profile field, had a selfless back-story ready made for Hollywood and looks so good he could play himself.
Unfortunately, as Mike said, it happens a lot more than we’ll ever know to non-famous kids we’ll never know the names of.
This has been a popular topic on a lot of sports blogs since it happened. With the evidence I’ve read it’s hard to believe this was an accident. Who knows what’s true and what isn’t but one ballistics specialist said his wounds were consistent with three machine gun blasts to the head at no more than 10 ft away. I don’t think the war with Al Qaeda is exactly hand to hand combat…not to mention many different accounts of what happened between a large number of his platoon members.
I’m not big on conspiracies, Tom, (because people are lousy at keeping things quiet), but this one just gets under my skin. The story was rotten from the jump. Thankfully, his parents were unrelenting in their pursuit of the details surrounding their son’s death but we’ll never know the whole story. For me, the sad prevalence of friendly fire that Michael alluded to only fuels the theory. It’s all too easy to see how events could unfold once the powers that be came to realize that their recruiting star would soon be shining his light back on them. What a heartbreak.
or maybe a scared kid over reacted andpulled the trigger resulting in three short bursts in a matter of seconds to the person behind him…that is much more likely than murder. Cover up = very possible after the fact…planned – highly unlikely.
Anyone in the military or from a military family knows its more likely an accident…sad but true…an accident.
I choose to believe it was an accident, but covering it up was NO accident. Fully intended to glorify Afghanistan and justify going into Iraq.
Mary
http://marycunninghambooks.com
The Telegraph are running an interesting article this week on the Pat Tillman conspiracy:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8046658/Betrayal-of-an-all-American-hero.html