Pat Tillman’s death in Afghanistan has gone from being tragic to suspicious to scandalous. As you probably know, Tillman, a former NFL star who retired from football to become an Army Ranger, was killed in Afghanistan in 2004 and his death was quickly seized upon for public relations purposes. In fact, the Army said Tillman was killed by enemy gunfire when he led his team to help another group of ambushed soldiers.
That wasn’t true — Tillman died as a result of friendly fire. The Pentagon knew better, but was reluctant to say so. A few weeks ago, we learned, “Just seven days after Pat Tillman’s death, a top general warned there were strong indications that it was friendly fire and President Bush might embarrass himself if he said the NFL star-turned-soldier died in an ambush… The memo reinforces suspicions that the Pentagon was more concerned with sparing officials from embarrassment than with leveling with Tillman’s family.”
What’s more, it took five weeks for Tillman’s family to learn about the incident, in part because, “within hours of Pat Tillman’s death, the Army went into information-lockdown mode, cutting off phone and Internet connections at a base in Afghanistan, posting guards on a wounded platoon mate, and ordering a sergeant to burn Tillman’s uniform.”
Today, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee is asking all the right questions.
Pat Tillman’s brother accused the military Tuesday of “intentional falsehoods” and “deliberate and careful misrepresentations” in portraying the football star’s death in Afghanistan as the result of heroic engagement with the enemy instead of friendly fire.
“We believe this narrative was intended to deceive the family but more importantly the American public,” Kevin Tillman told a House Government Reform and Oversight Committee hearing. “Pat’s death was clearly the result of fratricide,” he said.
“Revealing that Pat’s death was a fratricide would have been yet another political disaster in a month of political disasters … so the truth needed to be suppressed,” said Tillman, who was in a convoy behind his brother when the incident happened three years ago but didn’t see it.
Kevin Tillman said his family tried to get the whole truth for years, but they have now concluded that they were “being actively thwarted by powers that are more interested in protecting a narrative than getting at the truth and seeing justice is served.”
Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) accused the administration of inventing “sensational details and stories” about Tillman’s death — and explored the possibility of the same kind of deception with the 2003 rescue of Jessica Lynch.
Lynch, then an Army private, was badly injured when her convoy was ambushed in Iraq. She was subsequently rescued by American troops from an Iraqi hospital but the tale of her ambush was changed into a story of heroism on her part.
Still hampered by her injuries, Lynch walked slowly to the witness table and took a seat alongside Tillman’s family members.
“The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don’t need to be told elaborate tales,” Lynch said.
It’s not enough, apparently, to honor and celebrate the thousands of Americans who volunteer to serve and do their duty; the Bush administration seems to believe the truth needs to be “dramatized.” Maybe it’s to encourage recruiting, maybe it’s to rally support for mishandled military campaigns. Either way, it’s dishonest and today’s hearing is yet another embarrassment for an administration that has a problem with the truth.
“The government violated its most basic responsibility,” said Waxman.
If I only had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that phrase over the last six years….