The Tennessee Liberal

Many of my Republican friends get very angry with me when I say that people in he current administration really could not give a damn about soldiers and that their yellow-ribbon "pray for our troops" talk is all just political posturing.

Pat Tillman's parents gave an interview to the Washington Post in today's paper. In it, we see a prime object lesson.

Here is a guy, who, for all intents and purposes, has life made. Big NFL star, rising career, about to renew his contract for what would surely be an exorbitant sum. Instead, he chooses to serve his country in the armed forces. Clearly a brave decision, and one that few in his position would have the courage to make. As his mom put it:

"Pat had high ideals about the country; that's why he did what he did," Mary Tillman said in her first lengthy interview since her son's death.

Unfortunately, he was killed in action in Afghanistan.

Thus began the tributes and giant memorial services, broadcast nationwide, filled with so much of the rah-rah rhetoric that politicians love so much about the war.

Of course, at the same time all of this was happening, the army knew that Tillman was a victim of fratricide, gunned down by his own men. They chose to let the world think Tillman died charging a hill instead of telling the truth about the horrors of war. They even lied to his parents:

Patrick Tillman Sr., a San Jose lawyer, said he is furious about what he found in the volumes of witness statements and investigative documents the Army has given to the family. He decried what he calls a "botched homicide investigation" and blames high-ranking Army officers for presenting "outright lies" to the family and to the public.

"After it happened, all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this," Patrick Tillman said. "They purposely interfered with the investigation, they covered it up. I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out. They blew up their poster boy."

Perhaps it's time to ask what other lies we're being told. Cynicism is not disrespect for the troops. Indeed, what is more respectful: demanding the truth about their service and sacrifice, or simply lapping up what the administration throws out, despite knowing that it's just not true?