peacefinder's Journal: After Pat's 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

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Now get out there and vote . Maybe we can't set this right in just one election, but we can surely throw out many of the people who got it wrong.

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Update: Please see also some important (to me) caveats here.

Vote 3rd party if you can't stand the big 2

[nizo]

First, not voting for local/state officials is really tragic, since often they literally do come down to hundreds (and sometimes dozens) of votes.

If you just can't stand the thought of voting for one of the two larger wingnuts, vote for a third party candidate. Often there are plenty to choose from, and a vote for one of them means that is one more voter for the big two to win back, and trust me they will notice if enough people start voting third party.

So I agree; everyone go vote!

He's forgetting something.

[Timex]

Kevin Tillman seems to have forgotten something: when he raised his hand to swear an oath, he promised to follow any and all lawful orders given by those appointed over him. (emphasis mine) He never gave up his voice when he joined the military; he only promised to do what he was told, within reason. If, at any moment, he thought that the orders given him were illegal, there was a route to take. It may not always have been a pleasant one, but the route was there for the taking. He never had to keep h

Good luck making THAT happen...

[DG]

It takes a tremendous, enormous, COLLOSSAL set of balls for any soldier to stand up and say "this is not a lawful order, and I refuse to obey it".

It can and has been done before, but usually at the tactical level, and there is usually clear and readily availible direction elsewhere that makes resolving the case fairly straightforward.

As a pulled-out-of-my-ass for-instance, consider that every single soldier in theatre is issued an ROE card; a "Rules of Engagement" card that defines when he may employ force,

Re:

[Timex]

Now, let's consider the case of where a soldier believes that the Iraq invasion is actually ILLEGAL (as opposed to being just really stupid) Given that you have generals on down actively working on the mission, it becomes practically impossible for a line soldier to outright refuse to go based on that conviction. It can be very difficult to tell the difference between a legitimate belief that the mission is illegal and cowardice in the face of the enemy.

No, it's not. They would simply voice their concern,

Re:

[peacefinder]

"[I]... swear to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic ..."

That's a hard oath to follow, because identifying domestic enemies is notoriously difficult. Am I domestic enemy because I nonviolently oppose the policies of this administration? Is the President a domestic enemy [of the Constitution] because several of his administration's policies appear to contravene the plain meaning of the Constitution? Should a loyal soldier shoot or arrest ever memebr of the Supreme Cou

Re:

[Timex]

That's a hard oath to follow, because identifying domestic enemies is notoriously difficult.

It is, for a reason.

I think that if enough people are convinced the US Government as a whole has failed, then that is just cause to consider the Government an enemy of the Constitution. It is the Constitution that should be the baseline in determining the "enemy" part.

m I domestic enemy because I nonviolently oppose the policies of this administration? Is the President a domestic enemy [of the Constitution] because

Re:

[strspn]

"Smacks of Liberal activity"? It seems that by waiting until now, he has at least convinced you of the depth of his feelings on the matter and his desire for his expression of them to have his intended effect. Liberal "activity" indeed.

Re:

[Timex]

"Smacks of Liberal activity"? It seems that by waiting until now, he has at least convinced you of the depth of his feelings on the matter and his desire for his expression of them to have his intended effect. Liberal "activity" indeed.

Yes, "Liberal activity".

When anti-war speeches like Tillman's are made, the chances that it was made to influence the upcoming election is very high. Who would benefit from that sort of influence, pray tell?

Re:

[peacefinder]

"When anti-war speeches like Tillman's are made, the chances that it was made to influence the upcoming election is very high. Who would benefit from that sort of influence, pray tell?"

And Bush's recent spate of unusually frequent news conferences is simply his honest nonpartisan effort to keep us informed, right?

It's election season. All sides are furiously trying to spin things their way. This particular article only has power because the administration gave it power when they created the story of Heroic

Re:

[Timex]

Right, even. But a more rational thing to do would be to condemn the DoD for making unseemly use of Pat Tillman's death in the first place.

I think the whole reason that the DoD made Pat Tillman's death an issue at all was because of the environment being created by the anti-war crowds. They (the DoD) did what they thought was right at the time, in an effort to maintain morale.

I'll grant that people have every right to voice opposition to the war in Iraq. People did during Viet Nam, and practically every w

Re:

[peacefinder]

I find the "Immediate withdrawal" and "Quick in-and-out" ideas unrealistic, too. That's actually why I chose to oppose the war before it happened. It seemed very likely to me that we were signing up for an extended occupation where success would take around ten years, and that the odds it would make the world a safer place for us were nowhere near high enough to play for that large of stake.

"They (the DoD) did what they thought was right at the time, in an effort to maintain morale."

Lying to a fallen soldie