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Archives-- Installments for
May 21, 2005, through 31, 2005, starting below in reverse chronological order.
May
31, 2005--
Regarding
the ACLU suit seeking to force release of additional Abu Ghraib photos....
What's
needed is a special uniform to be worn by all ACLU lawyers when traveling in Muslim countries-- On the back should be a photo-image of the wearer smiling as he flushes a Koran.. More to
come....
--Jim
Wrenn, Editor at PoliSat.Com.
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Box for:
May
31, 2005 #01 Daily Update at PoliSat.Com,
where satire is alwayscommentary, but commentaryisn't always satire.™
We
pause on this Memorial Day to join in this refrain
for those who gave their All for us so Freedom we'd retain.
For Darkness they confronted in preserving Freedom's Light
we owe them more than we can pay for giving more than Life
but Lives they gave Endure Today in Hearts and Souls and Minds
of we who drink from Freedom's Cup the Fruits of Freedom's Vines.
Sound Version (Windows Media Player)-- Click
above image.
Silent
Version-- Click image below:
--Jim
Wrenn, Editor at PoliSat.Com
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May
27--30, 2005 #01 Daily Update at PoliSat.Com,
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May
23, 2005--
Heroes
mistakenly killed by heroes-- Controversy about the military's handling of information about Pat
Tillman's death merits thoughtful commentary rather political hyperbole.
According to a May
23, 2005 article published by the Washington Post and also
displayed on MSNBC.Com, both of which are members of the same media family as Newsweek, "Former NFL player Pat Tillman's family is lashing out against the Army, saying that the military's investigations into Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan last year were a sham and that Army efforts to cover up the truth have made it harder for them to deal with their loss."
The article also states, inter alia: "After a tour in Iraq, [Tillman's unit] unit was sent to Afghanistan in spring 2004, where they were to hunt for the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. Shortly after arriving in the mountains to fight, Tillman was killed in a barrage of gunfire from his own men, mistaken for the enemy as he got into position to defend them."
According to that article:
Over the next 10
days [after the Army's initial report to the Tillman family that he had been killed in a firefight
with the enemy], however, top-ranking Army officials -- including the theater commander, Army Gen. John P. Abizaid -- were told of the reports that Tillman had been killed by his own men, the investigation said. But the Army waited until a formal investigation was finished before telling the family -- which was weeks after a nationally televised memorial service that honored Tillman on May 3, 2004....
Patrick Tillman Sr., a San Jose lawyer, said he is furious about what he found in the volumes of witness statements and investigative documents the Army has given to the family. He decried what he calls a "botched homicide investigation" and blames high-ranking Army officers for presenting "outright lies" to the family and to the public.
The
above-quoted portion of the article uses the word "reports" (that Tillman had been killed
by his own men) as though it were the equivalent of "findings." How many people
using common sense would want to rely upon initial "reports" to characterize a battlefield
death as having been caused by fellow soldiers rather than hostile fire? Anyone with common
sense can understand why any official responsible for reporting the causes of deaths of soldiers may
be willing to risk overstating the heroism of those who died while awaiting a complete investigation
but extremely reluctant to rely upon less-than-thorough findings to characterize such death as being
the fault of fellow soldiers. What's so sinister about that? Given the the de-facto
connotation (in contrast to the literally correct denotation) of the legal jargon "botched
homicide investigation" attributed by article's author to Patrick Tillman's father, a lawyer,
should we conclude that the father is trying to imply that one or more fellow soldiers killed
Tillman on purpose rather than by mistake?
Few types of circumstances of death could cause more grief than that experienced by Pat Tillman's
family: Learning that their son was accidentally killed by his fellow troops mistaking him for
the enemy. Whose grief could equal or perhaps even surpass the Tillman family's
grief? Although Tillman's fellow rangers responsible for his death surely are not experiencing
the kind of grief unique to parents, no sensible person can doubt that they are suffering what is
likely to be a far more burdensome form of grief-- i.e., grief at the death of a fellow
ranger for whom they surely felt bonds of affection that many soldiers find stronger than familial
bonds compounded with the sense of moral guilt for having been the direct cause of his death.
It is not a form of callousness toward the incalculable loss experienced by Tillman's family to
recognize that the form of grief being experienced by Tillman's fellow rangers whose actions killed him is
in some ways far more painful and far less susceptible to being overcome than the Tillman family's
grief.
Unfortunately, the reporting of the understandable grief and anger on the part of Tillman's parents
is being done in a simplistic manner ostensibly intended to support the views of those who mocked
Tillman's noble motives rather than in a manner giving due consideration to the grief-stricken
states of minds of Tillman's fellow rangers in the immediate and short-term wake of his death as
they struggled to simultaneously cope with their sense of guilt over having caused his death and
their desire that the nobility and courageousness of his actions not be diminished by their own
mistakes.
On the many occasions when test-pilots died in crashes later determined to have been caused by
engineering or maintenance errors, did their deaths under such circumstances diminish their heroism
in any way? Did the fact that bad engineering judgments led to the deaths of the crew of the Challenger
render their service as astronauts any less heroic? Did the fact that bad engineering
judgments led to the deaths of the crew of the Columbia render their service as astronauts
any less heroic? With respect to the rangers killed while scaling Pointe du Hac in a
mission during the Normandy invasion to silence big guns believed to have been at the top of that
cliff, did the fact that such mission was predicated on erroneous intelligence render those rangers'
deaths any less heroic?
When soldiers risking their lives on a mission to serve their country
kill one of their own in the sincerely mistaken belief they were killing someone posing a threat to
them or their fellow soldiers, do they deserve to have calumny heaped upon them? If, in the
wake of such event, their grief and horror motivates them to wrongly attempt to conceal their
mistake, do they not deserve far more understanding for such terribly bad judgment than is typically
exhibited by many moral apologists for murderers in our criminal justice system? With
respect to allegations of reluctance on the part of some in the military to explain the nature of
the circumstances of Tillman's death immediately upon such circumstances being fully understood,
does such reluctance (which surelyº¹
must have at least in part stemmed from desires not to expose Tillman's grief-stricken fellow
rangers responsible for his death to unwarranted calumny) warrant the degree of condemnation now
being heaped upon the military? I think not.
None of those factors alters the larger truth of the matter: That Pat Tillman died while
heroically serving his country as a result of tragic but sincere mistakes of fellow soldiers also
heroically serving their country. Somehow, I doubt a person as noble as was Pat Tillman
would have wanted calumny heaped upon those responsible for his death under such circumstances.
Would he have wanted his death to be used to discourage others from following his example of
volunteering to serve his country?
Now, back to the May
23, 2005 article published by the Washington Post and also
displayed on MSNBC.Com, the publication of which at this particular time prompted
the preceding commentary: Why did MSNBC and/or
the Washington Post consider the article about grief and anger on the part of Tillman's
parents to be newsworthy at this particular time? What material change in the
circumstances, if any, occurred since a similar article related to the April 22, 2005, one-year
anniversary since Tillman's death?
Heroes
Killed by Heroes.
It's
tragic when heroes are killed
by heroes who'd joined them to till
for freedom in fields
of dangers concealed
by those who would murder free will.
And
likewise, it's tragic when heroes
whose errors have killed fellow heroes
are not merely blamed
but also defamed
as criminal killers of heroes.
And
likewise, it's sad when reporters
repeat beyond temporal borders
an old set of facts
designed to distract
from recent faux pas's by reporters.
Could it be that news-media
"families" such the Washington Post, MSNBC and Newsweek might stoop to
efforts to revive or enlarge controversies about others in order to draw attention away from recent controversy over
Newsweek's behavior? Was there "gambling" at that club in Casa
Blanca?
º¹
Only if one were to subscribe to the caricature of the military portrayed in Apocalypse
Now could one assume the deficiencies in the scope and timing of disclosures to the Tillman
family arose from purely self-serving motives and callousness towards Tillman's family rather than
bad judgment exercised under extremely difficult circumstances.
--Jim
Wrenn, Editor at PoliSat.Com..
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below into your email. To email the links to a different installment, go here
to find the Links Box for that installment.
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May
23, 2005 #01 Daily Update at PoliSat.Com,
where satire is alwayscommentary, but commentaryisn't always satire.™
