Tillman Died, Pentagon Lied

E&P, via Kos

Where, in the week after the Great Newsweek Error, is the comparable outrage in the press, in the blogosphere, and at the White House over the military's outright lying in the coverup of the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman? Where are the calls for apologies to the public and the firing of those responsible? Who is demanding that the Pentagon's word should never be trusted unless backed up by numerous named and credible sources?

Where is a Scott McClellan lecture on ethics and credibility?
. . .

Tillman was killed in a barrage of gunfire from his own men, mistaken for the enemy on a hillside near the Pakistan border. "Immediately," the Post reported, "the Army
kept the soldiers on the ground quiet and told Tillman's family and the public that he was killed by enemy fire while storming a hill, barking orders to his fellow Rangers." Tillman posthumously received the Silver Star for his "actions."

The latest military investigation, exposed by the Post earlier this month, "showed that soldiers in Afghanistan knew almost immediately that they had killed Tillman by mistake in what they believed was a firefight with enemies on a tight canyon road. The investigation also revealed that soldiers later burned Tillman's uniform and body armor."
....

"Maybe lying's not a big deal anymore," [Tillman's father] said. "Pat's dead, and this isn't going to bring him back. But these guys should have been held up to scrutiny, right up the chain of command, and no one has."

Mary Tillman, the mother, complained to the Post that the government used her son for weeks after his death. She said she was particularly offended when President Bush offered a taped memorial message to Tillman at a Cardinals football game shortly before the presidential election last fall.

Is Mr. Tillman right? Is it no longer a big deal when the Bush Pentagon flat out lies to us? Do we all just shrug and say, "well, that's the crazy Bush Pentagon for you - - you never know what those rascals are going to tell us."

I say he's wrong. I say it is a big deal. Our young men are occupying two foreign countries and being killed by the hundreds, and the Pentagon has shown us, plain as day, that it is willing to lie, officially, in order to manipulate our opinion.

I say it's a goddamn huge deal.