You're losing the support of your best, George.

After Pat's Birthday

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/

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 America has become a country that projects everything that it is not
and condemns everything that it is.

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

You're losing the support of your best, George.

After Pat's Birthday

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/