by isachar » Fri Oct 20, 2006 5:23 pm
Powerful stuff here. Kevin Tillman's eloquent voice will resonate. His and Pat's experience could well be that which brings this country back from the precipice over which it's already fallen.<br><br>I can't see Rove and Bush sliming him like they've tried to do with Cindy Sheehan, whose message, after all is indistinguishable from Kevin Tillman's.<br><br>------------------------------------------------------------<br>After Pat’s Birthday<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/">www.truthdig.com/report/i..._birthday/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>Posted on Oct 19, 2006<br>By Kevin Tillman<br><br>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. <br><br>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 get out. <br><br>Much has happened since we handed over our voice: <br><br>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.<br> <br>Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is. <br><br>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. <br><br>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. <br><br>Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes. <br><br>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. <br><br>Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started. <br><br>Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated. <br><br>Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated. <br><br>Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated. <br><br>Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated. <br><br>Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe. <br><br>Somehow torture is tolerated. <br><br>Somehow lying is tolerated. <br><br>Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense. <br><br>Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world. <br><br>Somehow a narrative is more important than reality. <br><br>Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is. <br><br>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. <br><br>Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance. <br><br>Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country. <br><br>Somehow this is tolerated. <br><br>Somehow nobody is accountable for this. <br><br>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. <br><br>Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat’s birthday. <br><br><br>Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman, <br><br>Kevin Tillman<br><br> <br>Courtesy the Tillman Family<br><br>------------------------------------------------------------<br>Isachar's comment:<br><br>Though I also encourage all to vote, I do so only in the sense that it will force the Repugs to steal millions more votes than they otherwise would need to do. Hopefully, this will make the imminent theft, fraud, manipulation of voter roles (including the recent purge of hundreds of thousands of voters in Ohio) impossible to ignore.<br><br>I think Rove has at least two October surprises. One has been occurring silently and stealthily in the form of the various forms of election fraud, manipulation, theft, and computerized voting machine manipulation, the Repugs have become most adept in having honed their skills under the spotlight of a national election in Florida and Ohio (and elsewhere), and one mid-term election.<br><br>The other is yet to come. It might be the verdict in Saddam's trial, though I suspect that may just be the icing on something larger. Maybe they'll pull Osama's body out of the storage cooler they've got him stored in, thaw him out, and claim him to have been recently killed.<br><br>One thing is for certain. They've committed far too many crimes to let control of Congress slip from their hands. Yet, even should the Dem's take the House (and/or Senate), the October surprise may be that there is no October surprise. Rather, they may choose to let control of the House pass to the Dems, and implement draconian measures thereafter to obviate a loss of the House.<br><br>Most Congressmen/women and Senators (with a few exceptions) are phony, spineless, compromised, or easily subjected to blackmail or threats. Rove knew Paul Wellstone was his biggest single threat going into 2004, and we all know what happend to him.<br><br>Kerry? What a joke. Gore? Possible, but doubtful, he already rolled over once. Hillary? Bwhahahahahahaha. She's another word for suicide. Edwards is just a pretty boy. That leaves Feinberg, Richardson, and Obama as the Dem's best. Am I missing any others? <br><br>Of course, this all assumes there will be another Presidential election, though I'm fairly confident they'll keep that pretense up - in the Mexican sense of the tradition. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=isachar>isachar</A> at: 10/20/06 3:31 pm<br></i>
