The NY Times columnist ran a piece on Tillman just a couple of days after mine ran. Some new info:

“They blew up their poster boy,” Patrick Tillman told The Post; he is convinced that “all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script” the fake narrative (or, as he puts it, “outright lies”) that followed. Pat Tillman’s mother, Mary Tillman, was offended to discover that even President Bush wanted a cameo role in this screenplay: she told The Post that he had offered to tape a memorial to her son for a Cardinals game that would be televised shortly before Election Day. (She said no.)

In an interview with The Arizona Republic, Mary Tillman added: “They could have told us upfront that they were suspicious that it was a fratricide but they didn’t. They wanted to use him for their purposes. It was good for the administration. It was before the elections. It was during the prison scandal. They needed something that looked good, and it was appalling that they would use him like that.”

Appalling but consistent. The Pentagon has often failed to give the troops what they need to fight the war in Iraq, from proper support in manpower and planning at the invasion’s outset to effective armor for battle to adequately financed health care for those who make it home. But when it comes to using troops in the duplicitous manner that Mary Tillman describes, the sky’s the limit.

Pat Tillman’s case is itself a replay of the fake “Rambo” escapades ascribed to Pfc. Jessica Lynch a year earlier, just when Operation Iraqi Freedom showed the first tentative signs of trouble and the Pentagon needed a feel-good distraction. As if to echo Mary Tillman, Ms. Lynch told Time magazine this year, “I was used as a symbol.”

It’s probably important to note here that Tillman’s parents have shunned publicity for eighteen months, now. They didn’t ask for any of this. They aren’t anti-war activists. They aren’t Cindy Sheehan. They’d just like some answers. And the Pentagon’s been slamming doors in their faces at every turn.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 7th, 2005 at 7:54 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.