Pat Tillman is not a hero....

[cynic]

I'm just passing on the article, not the opinion. Direct the flames at the author.

From http://media.dailycollegian.com/pages/tillman_lobandwidth.html?in_archive=1

Pat Tillman is not a hero: He got what was coming to him

By Rene Gonzalez
April 28, 2004


When the death of Pat Tillman occurred, I turned to my friend who was watching the news with me and said, "How much you want to bet they start talking about him as a 'hero' in about two hours?" Of course, my friend did not want to make that bet. He'd lose. In this self-critical incapable nation, nothing but a knee-jerk "He's a hero" response is to be expected.

I've been mystified at the absolute nonsense of being in "awe" of Tillman's "sacrifice" that has been the American response. Mystified, but not surprised. True, it's not everyday that you forgo a $3.6 million contract for joining the military. And, not just the regular army, but the elite Army Rangers. You know he was a real Rambo, who wanted to be in the "real" thick of things. I could tell he was that type of macho guy, from his scowling, beefy face on the CNN pictures. Well, he got his wish. Even Rambo got shot in the third movie, but in real life, you die as a result of being shot. They should call Pat Tillman's army life "Rambo 4: Rambo Attempts to Strike Back at His Former Rambo 3 Taliban Friends, and Gets Killed."

But, does that make him a hero? I guess it's a matter of perspective. For people in the United States, who seem to be unable to admit the stupidity of both the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars, such a trade-off in life standards (if not expectancy) is nothing short of heroic. Obviously, the man must be made of "stronger stuff" to have had decided to "serve" his country rather than take from it. It's the old JFK exhortation to citizen service to the nation, and it seems to strike an emotional chord. So, it's understandable why Americans automatically knee-jerk into hero worship.

However, in my neighborhood in Puerto Rico, Tillman would have been called a "pendejo," an idiot. Tillman, in the absurd belief that he was defending or serving his all-powerful country from a seventh-rate, Third World nation devastated by the previous conflicts it had endured, decided to give up a comfortable life to place himself in a combat situation that cost him his life. This was not "Ramon or Tyrone," who joined the military out of financial necessity, or to have a chance at education. This was a "G.I. Joe" guy who got what was coming to him. That was not heroism, it was prophetic idiocy.

Tillman, probably acting out his nationalist-patriotic fantasies forged in years of exposure to Clint Eastwood and Rambo movies, decided to insert himself into a conflict he didn't need to insert himself into. It wasn't like he was defending the East coast from an invasion of a foreign power. THAT would have been heroic and laudable. What he did was make himself useful to a foreign invading army, and he paid for it. It's hard to say I have any sympathy for his death because I don't feel like his "service" was necessary. He wasn't defending me, nor was he defending the Afghani people. He was acting out his macho, patriotic crap and I guess someone with a bigger gun did him in.

Perhaps it's the old, dreamy American thought process that forces them to put sports greats and "larger than life" sacrificial lambs on the pedestal of heroism, no matter what they've done. After all, the American nation has no other role to play but to be the cheerleaders of the home team; a sad role to have to play during conflicts that suffer from severe legitimacy and credibility problems.

Matters are a little clearer for those living outside the American borders. Tillman got himself killed in a country other than his own without having been forced to go over to that country to kill its people. After all, whether we like them or not, the Taliban is more Afghani than we are. Their resistance is more legitimate than our invasion, regardless of the fact that our social values are probably more enlightened than theirs. For that, he shouldn't be hailed as a hero, he should be used as a poster boy for the dangerous consequences of too much "America is #1," frat boy, propaganda bull. It might just make a regular man irrationally drop $3.6 million to go fight in a conflict that was anything but "self-defense." The same could be said of the unusual belief of 50 percent of the American nation that thinks Saddam Hussein was behind Sept. 11. One must indeed stand in awe of the amazing success of the American propaganda machine. It works wonders.

Al-Qaeda won't be defeated in Afghanistan, even if we did kill all their operatives there. Only through careful and logical changing of the underlying conditions that allow for the ideology to foster will Al-Qaeda be defeated. Ask the Israelis if 50 years of blunt force have eradicated the Palestinian resistance. For that reason, Tillman's service, along with that of thousands of American soldiers, has been wrongly utilized. He did die in vain, because in the years to come, we will realize the irrationality of the War on Terror and the American reaction to Sept. 11. The sad part is that we won't realize it before we send more people like Pat Tillman over to their deaths.

Rene Gonzalez is a UMass graduate student.

 

[ATR-DRIVR]

Pat Tilman was/is a hero because he fought for this country.
Just like all of the men and women wearing the uniform of this country. He did not question what it is all about.

He is a hero, along with ALL of them.
rene gonzalez is a total A$$. He is not worthy of cleaning the dog shiite off of Pat's boots.

 

[Jedi_Cheese]

Rene Gonzalez already retracted what he said about Pat Tilman. The Associate Dean at UMass pretty much said that what Rene said was way out of line. The paper apologized for printing the opinion.

It's almost a non-story except for the fact that Rene Gonzales just publicized that he is a certifiable moron. Did he REALLY think that he could put this in a newspaper and get away with it?

 

[I.P. Freley]

I wasn't aware that the only use of the US Military should be to defend the coasts when the bad guys float over the ocean.

I guess we should recall all of our overseas forces, from every single theater of operation, and have them line up from Miami to Portland, from Seattle to San Diego, and never do anything about our international interests. We should ESPECIALLY leave Afghanistan, as we have no operational interest there in specific.

My, how all those Rambo movies have twisted my little mind.

While I'm on the topic, why is it that every anti-American rant has to include the "Rambo" movies? Most under age 20 have only seen parts of them on TBS, if at all, and most over age 20 have little recollection of them except to make fun of their favorite parts that are still used in some talk radio shows ("It's over Johnny... It's over!!....... IT'S NOT OVER! NOTHING IS OVER 'TIL I SAY IT IS!!")

I guess it's just an update of the John Wayne stereotype, which plays even less well to modern Americans. This author, though, is a truly MODERN American, with deep currents of self-loathing and a hopeless streak of suicidal isolationism. I expect nothing less of a UMass student, and especially a GRAD student. Thankfully this individual doesn't speak for all of us, though it may seem that way to him isolated in Amherst (which I've noticed from personal experience in the past is far to the left of even Massachusetts' most famous Senator).

Pitiful.

 

[UALX727]

She can thank Pat that she has the right to open her trap and speak that garbage without fear of getting beheaded by some extremist Muslim wacko. Maybe she needs to go over and talk to some of the females that lived in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

And another thing, Rene:
If you don't like our government's policies, whatever. Just don't trash a guy that was just killed defending YOUR freedom's.

 

[I.P. Freley]

Don't quote me on this, 727, but I think Rene is a male's name.

Note I didn't say a MAN, because Rene is definitely not that, even if I'm right and it IS a male.

 

[sim66]

I just have to bite my lip and laugh. Some people just don't get it and never will !! It reminds me of when the invasion started. I was in one of FBO's in West Palm and the only people glued to the big screen TV watching the coverage on CNN were pilots. All the other so-called "important people" were in their own world.

 

[DAS at 10/250]

If you can read this, thank your teacher.

If you are reading it in English, thank a soldier.

 

[DAL737FO]

"However, in my neighborhood in Puerto Rico, Tillman would have been called a "pendejo," an idiot."

"This was not "Ramon or Tyrone," who joined the military out of financial necessity, or to have a chance at education. This was a "G.I. Joe" guy who got what was coming to him."

Spoken truly like one that has never served. Today's military is all volunteer and everyone has their own reason for joining.

If you look at the casualty reports coming out of all of our deployments you will see names that span all ethnicities and races. Who cares that Billy Bob is from dog patch and joined because he wanted to get back at those guys or Tyrone joined because he wanted to earn money for college. They are all volunteers and they are all heroes in my book. I wish them all a speedy and safe return.

Veteran U.S. Cavalry
Gulf War part I

 

[Timebuilder]

Where I come from, Rene was almost always a female name. Of course, now days, you never know.

It isn't every day one gets to read something like the Rene Gonzalez piece on Pat Tillman. Even more rare is when a piece like that passes for journalism, an increasingly lost art since I was a college student in 1970. At the very outset, you can tell how Rene feels about the men and women who are the ones who sacrificed themselves for the past 228 years in order for Rene to have the ability to have her opinion exposed to the public. Her distaste for a “masculine” man is evident, which would be considered chauvinistic were the genders reversed, in fact, it might be considered to be "hate speech," a codeword for those brave enough to speak out against the tenets of liberal nirvana and political correctness. She is mystified, and so am I, but that she fails to grasp the basic quality of freedom, that it is a fleeting thing that must constantly be defended and renewed. Like the often quoted (misquoted, according to some) passage from George Orwell, 'we sleep peaceably in our beds because of rough men' like Pat Tillman.

In order to not view Tillman as a hero, one must distance oneself from other such heroic acts. Acts like running into a burning building when others are running out, acts like patrolling dangerous neighborhoods with half the firepower of the criminals, acts like placing love of freedom and country above the love of their own life. Acts of selflessness, such as the forbearance of a huge monetary sum, an act as unimaginable to the common man as the number of gas consuming SUV's and private jets owned by John Kerry and his wife, and instead, volunteering to take on the most difficult of tasks without publicity or complaint.

The irony, of course, is that without the heroes, the people she finds mystifying, the rough men and tactical women who help to ensure our future in an uncertain world, Rene would not have her opinion known to anyone, except perhaps the woman next to her, were she far enough from other ears to speak plainly from her burka, in fear of another beating.

Everyone, including Rene, needs to be thankful to God for men like Pat Tillman, without whom we would have other, more terrible concerns.

God bless you, Pat.