You lost him mama, the wars calling him / Feel its his duty to fall in line with all of them/ He's a soldier
"Flags of Our Fathers" is a new film by Clint Eastwood that premiered nationwide last Saturday. It presents the story behind the now immortal photo of six marines hoisting the American Flag atop Mount Suribachi, on the island of Iwo Jima, during World War II. Strategically postioned between the US controlled Maraina Islands, and the Japnanese archipelago, the U.S Marines securing of Iwo Jima was a crucial victory for the Allies in the Pacific theatre of the war. The resulting image inspired a war-weary public and reinvigorated the war bond effort at home
The Roosevelt and Truman adminsitrations went to lengths that were questionable at best to make national icons of the men in that picture, and to spin the authentic heroism of that day into the sort of unambiguous yarn that Americans love . But no matter how thick you pave it over, truth grows like a dandelion toward an ineluctable meeting with the light. The flag raising captured in the photo was actually replay of the original event which had taken place earlier that day. A man initally paraded before the public as one of the soldiers in the photo was not. The Government got its myth, and its money, and enough public support to prevail in the most important war that has ever been fought. The men involved in the photo and the publicity campaign got depression, and shame, and death.
"The first casualty when war comes is truth", offered Senator Hiram Johnson in 1918. When war came to Iraq the 611th american casualty would have been Corproal Patrick Daniel Tillman . Because our official casualty count does not include American soldiers killed by American artillery he actually has no number among the victims . His story, like the photo at Iwo Jima, was spun and sanitized by the government as a rallying cry to patriotism. Young ,blonde, blue eyed pro athlete walks away from millions in contract money to serve his country at war. In a round of vicious fighting with afghan rebels the hero loses his life trying to save the men under his command. It was the perfect tale and Pat Tillman was the perfect symbol to recommit the public to a war that it viewed with increasing ambivalence. The trouble, of course, was that the story was too perfect, and soon it would be dandelion season again.
First we were told that he was killed by afghan rebels in a firefight near the pakistan border. Then, later that he was actually shot by American in troops in the confusion of an pitched battle with the enemy.Then it turned out that the enemy wasnt even there, and that two of our own units had accidentally fired upon each other. Members of Tillman's unit were removed from the Army Rangers for buning his uniform and armor to conceal the circumstnces of his death. It was the same awful alchemy that occurred with the Iwo Jima photo...real valor is transmuted into myth, which then turns to controversy, and at last into bitter shame.
Kevin Tillman, who went into the army the same day as his brother Pat, has written a powerful indictment of our country's leadership in a blog at truthdig.com. He points no fingers, and produces no smoking gun in the conspiracy to mask the details of his brother's demise. He speaks frankly and poignantly about his disappointment in the current administration, and about what he regards as the traitorus silence of the masses ,who watch as democracy is stolen by those we asked to safeguard it. A little more than a year ago Pat's mom gave an interview to the San Francisco Chronicle, in which she disclosed Pat's own misgivings about the war in Iraq. Her statements, as well as her inquiries into the coverup surrounding her son's death, hackled many on the right who loved the myth but had no interest in the man.
The Tillmans are patriots in the most desperately needed sense. An American family, that has fought and sacrificed, here and abroad, in defense of America's principles. They have eschewed potemkin heroism for the real thing, because they understand what our President apparently cannot. The flags of our fathers were never intended to be gags in the mouths of our mothers, and we owe them more than a passing slaute as they go by, draped across the coffins of our sons.
The Roosevelt and Truman adminsitrations went to lengths that were questionable at best to make national icons of the men in that picture, and to spin the authentic heroism of that day into the sort of unambiguous yarn that Americans love . But no matter how thick you pave it over, truth grows like a dandelion toward an ineluctable meeting with the light. The flag raising captured in the photo was actually replay of the original event which had taken place earlier that day. A man initally paraded before the public as one of the soldiers in the photo was not. The Government got its myth, and its money, and enough public support to prevail in the most important war that has ever been fought. The men involved in the photo and the publicity campaign got depression, and shame, and death.
"The first casualty when war comes is truth", offered Senator Hiram Johnson in 1918. When war came to Iraq the 611th american casualty would have been Corproal Patrick Daniel Tillman . Because our official casualty count does not include American soldiers killed by American artillery he actually has no number among the victims . His story, like the photo at Iwo Jima, was spun and sanitized by the government as a rallying cry to patriotism. Young ,blonde, blue eyed pro athlete walks away from millions in contract money to serve his country at war. In a round of vicious fighting with afghan rebels the hero loses his life trying to save the men under his command. It was the perfect tale and Pat Tillman was the perfect symbol to recommit the public to a war that it viewed with increasing ambivalence. The trouble, of course, was that the story was too perfect, and soon it would be dandelion season again.
First we were told that he was killed by afghan rebels in a firefight near the pakistan border. Then, later that he was actually shot by American in troops in the confusion of an pitched battle with the enemy.Then it turned out that the enemy wasnt even there, and that two of our own units had accidentally fired upon each other. Members of Tillman's unit were removed from the Army Rangers for buning his uniform and armor to conceal the circumstnces of his death. It was the same awful alchemy that occurred with the Iwo Jima photo...real valor is transmuted into myth, which then turns to controversy, and at last into bitter shame.
Kevin Tillman, who went into the army the same day as his brother Pat, has written a powerful indictment of our country's leadership in a blog at truthdig.com. He points no fingers, and produces no smoking gun in the conspiracy to mask the details of his brother's demise. He speaks frankly and poignantly about his disappointment in the current administration, and about what he regards as the traitorus silence of the masses ,who watch as democracy is stolen by those we asked to safeguard it. A little more than a year ago Pat's mom gave an interview to the San Francisco Chronicle, in which she disclosed Pat's own misgivings about the war in Iraq. Her statements, as well as her inquiries into the coverup surrounding her son's death, hackled many on the right who loved the myth but had no interest in the man.
The Tillmans are patriots in the most desperately needed sense. An American family, that has fought and sacrificed, here and abroad, in defense of America's principles. They have eschewed potemkin heroism for the real thing, because they understand what our President apparently cannot. The flags of our fathers were never intended to be gags in the mouths of our mothers, and we owe them more than a passing slaute as they go by, draped across the coffins of our sons.
posted by jayjay23 at 10:18 AM
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