Jlallen, regarding Pat Tillman and the revelations concerning what really led to his death and how the army not only hid the facts but made up other, more politically palatable facts. You ask: So the question remains.....what IS the purpose?
His mother seems to understand the purpose. She's asked the army to explain why it hid the truth and why it fabricated the facts. The reason I think it's important is because we need to understand and recognize that the Army has historically been, and continues to be, ready, willing and able to distort the truth for its own purposes. Those purposes can be as varied as officers attempting to cover their asses and keep that gold "promotion headed" star beside their names, to knowing and participating in a politically correct slant on the events that will please the current Administration.
I understand that this civilian Administration insists on having a say in top level military promotion decisions. Do you think the officers up and down the chain of command don't understand what it is that the cowboys in charge expect to hear from them, and what they don't?
When we're told that the torture abuses were the works of "a few bad apples," that the Jessica Lynch story was a story of heroism on her part, that Pat Tillman died fighting aggressively and was killed by insurgents, that we are "winning" the war against the insurgents, that our troops have sufficient body armor and armor for their vehicles, that troops understood the stop-loss provisions when they signed up, that our commanders in Iraq don't want or need more troops, that the Iraqi forces we've trained led the charge in Fallujah and fought gallantly, that the current Iraqi leaders exercise power to make Iraq a "sovereign country," that most of the country is safe for elections, etc., those are important signposts and symbols that should be accurately reported and are not.
I think that level of deception is damaging for a democracy and drives an even bigger wedge between people on each side of the thinking divide. And that's the "purpose" of revealing such clear cut examples of lies and deceits. Ed |
