Do you remember Pat Tillman, the NFL star who became the poster child for Bush Wars. Do you remember how he was killed by ‘friendly fire’? (Friendly my arse!! What kills you is unfriendly as hell!) Do you remember how the Bush/GOP regime covered up the manner of his death?(Tillman had become disillusioned with our policy and was starting to reveal it. Many believe that the Bush/GOP regime fixed it so that their poster child could not be an embarrassment, but I have no proof to that effect.) I learned something today, and I feel angry about it:
We've posted a ton of information about the Pat Tillman saga on C&L as heartbreaking as it is and I wanted to remind everyone that the man who is going public with his views on how to handle Afghanistan was deeply involved with torture and Pat Tillman's cover up.
The parents of slain Army Ranger and NFL star Pat Tillman voiced concerns Tuesday that the general who played a role in mischaracterizing his death could be put in charge of military operations in Afghanistan. In a brief interview with The Associated Press, Pat Tillman Sr. accused Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal of covering up the circumstances of the 2004 slaying. "I do believe that guy participated in a falsified homicide investigation," Pat Tillman Sr. said.
He later apologized for his role in the cover up.
The Daily News:
The general taking over the Afghan war said Tuesday he was sorry for the coverup of ex-NFL star Pat Tillman's friendly fire death.
"I was a part of that, and I apologize for it," Army Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal told a Senate hearing.
Tillman was killed by fellow GIs in 2004 as his Ranger unit operated in eastern Afghanistan on the Pakistan border.
McChrystal signed off on a posthumous Silver Star medal for Tillman - who gave up a fortune as a pro football player to join the Army after 9/11 - though he knew it might be fratricide and not a firefight.
It took six probes before his family learned the truth: other troops mistook him for the enemy and shot him as he screamed, "I'm Pat F---ing Tillman!"
"There is nothing we can do to automatically restore the trust which was the second casualty," McChrystal said.
But the general, who commanded the supersecret Joint Special Operations Command then, denied the phony narrative of a raging firefight was anything more sinister than "mistakes" made to honor the famous GI.
And then there is his role in our torture policies…
Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>
I strongly encourage you to click through and read the rest of the story that deals with Chrystal's complicity in the Bush/GOP war crimes involving torture.
I ask you this. How can we depend on this man, given his recent track record, to tell Obama the truth? Doesn’t his recent speech in the UK, trying to sell his plan, even before discussing it with Obama, reveal that he has an agenda of his own? Do you share my fear that this man will commit war crimes on his own, and that Obama will be blamed for them? Why is this man in command?
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15 comments:
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1897542,00.html
In looking I find much book smarts on combat and very little boots on the ground experience in war as a junior officer. A pentagon career officer Patton wannabe who first declared major combat operations were done in Iraq before bush did.
I guess the death of 4500 soldiers ensuing was not considered a major combat operation.
I gu8ess the president has no use for war horses only them of a political stripe above their uniform pentagon awarded medal rows.
Worst way to die in a battlefield!
A horrible way to go.
CHRYSTAL had his black/ops in iraq. bringing him to af/pak must have been a decision made by gates, or patreus. his self admission of being complicit in the tillman cover up should have made him null and void right out of the gate.
Thanks, Mark. That background really helps.
HB & Monique, I fully agree, especially if he was executed to shut him up.
RZ, mt point exactly. I'd put my money on Gates. I knew Obama's 'bipartisan' appointments were a mistake.
TC; imo; gates was not his "choice". he as others in his regime were handed to him. kissinger [dr. strangelove] approved of all his appointments. lol lets please not forget that ZBIG, and Albright were his foreign policy advisers during the campaign. Shillary, was a huge mistake, but she was part of the package. as well as holbrooke, and dennis ross. the same ol same OIL, krew never left. even Negroponte is advising shillary on central america.
I agree with you 100% on this one, why is that man still wearing a uniform? And why hasn't Obama canned his ass? Is he unclear on the concept of what the Commander-in-Chief is?
I'll be happy to miss KO's "special report", though...nothing special about that dufus.
Funny but I was just this morning looking at my picture of Tillman and thinking about him. You can not trust McChrystal. Knowing Tillman was shot point blank in the head I will always wonder who took the shot but knowing McChrystal headed Cheney's assassin squad I would assume McChrystal knows all about it!
It's interesting because I just finished reading another post written about McChrystal from a guy who served under him in a Joint Special Operations Command in 2003 and also served under him in Iraq 2006. He had a whole different take on the guy. Really respected him and said that it wasn't McChrystal who went out and "leaked" anything, but the leak came from someone else who leaked his report.
Regarding the appearances on those shows, he said, "He had permission up the chain of command. No one raised an objection to him doing these appearances. And Stan McChrystal is not the type of man to stand up and lie when asked a direct question."
Anyway...as I like to get my information from different sources, I just thought this was interesting.
That doesn't mean that I agree with the guy, I want to see that war end and I want Obama to bring our troops back instead of leaving them in this quagmire. Viet Nam still weighs heavy in my mind and I saw more and more of our guys being sent there to die in a war that would never end.
Kissinger, RZ? Wow! You really did never meet a conspiracy theory you didn't like. That's a new one. On what do you base it?
Jim, that's my understanding as well, although I have no proof, just hearsay alleged to be from soldiers who were there.
Thanks for both views, Nunly. I can easily believe that he wasn't personally responsible for the leak, and understand that he is quite popular with his troops. However, the buzz I'm hearing, although I can't say for sure, is that he didn't clear his speech and that Obama is quite irate over it.
TC; google --kissinger sent to russia under obama----do you acknowledge that zbig and albright were his foreign policy advisers ?
TomCat- regardless of what I hear from the "other side", I still can't help but feel some..more than some, distrust of this guy. Of course, there is so much that goes on behind the scenes, it's hard to tell who's telling the truth. This is why I never want to see my son go into the military. They just can't be trusted.
RZ, Obama is quite eclectic about who he uses for help and where he gets his advise. Sending Kissinger on an errand with several others does not put him in Kissinger's pocket. And while those two are his foreign policy advisers, they are two out of about three hundred. My concern about Obama here is that more progressive voices are not included.
Nunly, on that we can certainly agree.
TC; maybe one of his [progressive] foreign policy advisers slipped by me. which of his advisers are not [isreal firsters]? does obama have a non [chicken hawk] of any significance advising him? as far as i can tell they are retreads from the clinton era, and a bunch of Neolibs.
RZ, he has progressives advising him, but I'm aware of none in the foreign policy area, a mistake on his part.
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