Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Pat Tillman Coverup
I am sure most of you have heard the story about Pat Tillman. He was a pro football player that turned down a multimillion dollar contract in the NFL to go to Afganistan and fight for his country. He was an Army Ranger that was sent into combat in Afganishtan. He was later caught in a friendly fire exchange and killed in action. The Army tried to cover up the whole debacle by saying he was killed by the enemy. The Army later did an investigation into the whole deal and discovered that several generals and others decided to cover up the friendly fire exchange. Tillman was considered a hero because of him deciding to go serve in the Army rather than play football for fame. My question is how could someone choose to lie to a country and a family in order to make themselves feel better. Also what do you think will happen to these people that were caught lying.
# posted by Chris Shoup @ 1:33 PM 
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In my opinion, the people involved thought one of two things:
1. This guy is a pro athlete, the media is going to be all over this, and I don't want my hands dirty...this is going to be a PR nightmare.
or
2. This guy was a pro athlete, we could really solidify our position on the relevance of war if we have a war hero...let's cook up a story, the media is going to be all over this one...this is going to be a PR dream.
Either way I think it dishonored the life of a guy who really thought he was doing his bit to help the country. I doubt anyone is going to be charged or punished. I hope that they are, but its been so long since the story broke and I just don't see the public outcry for justice.
C'est la vie
1. This guy is a pro athlete, the media is going to be all over this, and I don't want my hands dirty...this is going to be a PR nightmare.
or
2. This guy was a pro athlete, we could really solidify our position on the relevance of war if we have a war hero...let's cook up a story, the media is going to be all over this one...this is going to be a PR dream.
Either way I think it dishonored the life of a guy who really thought he was doing his bit to help the country. I doubt anyone is going to be charged or punished. I hope that they are, but its been so long since the story broke and I just don't see the public outcry for justice.
C'est la vie
Hello Chris,
You have asked at least one very technical question in, "How could someone choose to lie to a country and a family in order to make them feel better?" As a vague answer to that question, I don't think the choice to maybe lie to a country and a family in this case related to personally allow them to feel better. Our U.S. Military is a large organization that serves the world. It is very likely this situation involved a large amount of improperly handled beauracy that failed to validate a records review, or distorted some type of audit. In essence, I'm having a difficult time correlating these events with an intentional military cover-up. For an intentional military cover-up to be a feasible occasion here, I would think that someone would need to make a personal connection with the unfortunate Tillman's death and a military official. Otherwise, the circumstances fail to provide probable motive for Mr. Tillman's tragic death. As far as the people that were caught lying, the question becomes were they lying under oath, or implied lie through the falsification of government documents. Basically, it comes down to rather or not the lie is documented on paper as compared to a verbal lie. If it is only a verbal lie, those people have probably escaped prosecution by society. In a nutshell, for this situation to materialize, a specific charge is going to have to be pursued, a technical investigation on that charge, a (some) suspects identified, and the charge imposed upon specific suspects. From my perspective, to sort this situation out, an investigator would not conclude the investigation at the site of death. If there be an intentional military cover-up here, the investigation would probably need to work in reverse back to probably the time period Mr. Tillman made his decision to enter the military.
Thomas
You have asked at least one very technical question in, "How could someone choose to lie to a country and a family in order to make them feel better?" As a vague answer to that question, I don't think the choice to maybe lie to a country and a family in this case related to personally allow them to feel better. Our U.S. Military is a large organization that serves the world. It is very likely this situation involved a large amount of improperly handled beauracy that failed to validate a records review, or distorted some type of audit. In essence, I'm having a difficult time correlating these events with an intentional military cover-up. For an intentional military cover-up to be a feasible occasion here, I would think that someone would need to make a personal connection with the unfortunate Tillman's death and a military official. Otherwise, the circumstances fail to provide probable motive for Mr. Tillman's tragic death. As far as the people that were caught lying, the question becomes were they lying under oath, or implied lie through the falsification of government documents. Basically, it comes down to rather or not the lie is documented on paper as compared to a verbal lie. If it is only a verbal lie, those people have probably escaped prosecution by society. In a nutshell, for this situation to materialize, a specific charge is going to have to be pursued, a technical investigation on that charge, a (some) suspects identified, and the charge imposed upon specific suspects. From my perspective, to sort this situation out, an investigator would not conclude the investigation at the site of death. If there be an intentional military cover-up here, the investigation would probably need to work in reverse back to probably the time period Mr. Tillman made his decision to enter the military.
Thomas
I think that it was a cover up because he was a pro athelete. Being famous sometimes spins into people heads and it changes their thoughts on how to handle a situation. It doesn't mean it is right though
I agree with samual, they were probably thinking on of those two things....it's wrong that we were lied to, but if you think about it the military and government probably cover up things and lie to us all the time, we just happened to find out about it this time...i'm not saying it's right or that i agree with it, but i think we are lied to on a regular basis
# posted by 
: 11:59 PM
: 11:59 PM
Hello Amanda,
If at some point and time you decide to seek an employment opportunity, don't rule out being a stand-up comedian. Normally, it is very difficult to make me laugh. On occasions when I do laugh, the occurrence is so rare that I will shed tears. I have experienced one of those occasions this morning after reading your post"....it's wrong that we were lied to,.....the military and government probably cover up things and lie to us all the time,....but i think we are lied to on a regular basis."
If that be the case, why do we put up with such ill-fated behavior? Think about it. If the American people lied to the Government, the Government would call it perjury, take some of our money, place us in jail, or impose both of the penalties on us at the same time. The American people shouldn't tolerate being lied to and should hold the Government and the military accountable for lying to us. Of course, that sounds fine and dandy, but how do the American people hold the Government and the military accountable for lying to us?
Thomas
If at some point and time you decide to seek an employment opportunity, don't rule out being a stand-up comedian. Normally, it is very difficult to make me laugh. On occasions when I do laugh, the occurrence is so rare that I will shed tears. I have experienced one of those occasions this morning after reading your post"....it's wrong that we were lied to,.....the military and government probably cover up things and lie to us all the time,....but i think we are lied to on a regular basis."
If that be the case, why do we put up with such ill-fated behavior? Think about it. If the American people lied to the Government, the Government would call it perjury, take some of our money, place us in jail, or impose both of the penalties on us at the same time. The American people shouldn't tolerate being lied to and should hold the Government and the military accountable for lying to us. Of course, that sounds fine and dandy, but how do the American people hold the Government and the military accountable for lying to us?
Thomas
I too agree with Samuel that I think they viewed this tragedy in a PR perspective and decided to cover it up. Too bad that their plan backfired and they ended up making this matter even worse.
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