Update On Pat Tillman’s Friendly Fire Case
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in The War On Terrorism
The last time I visited the story of Pat Tillman’s tragic death was to highlight the plight of his mother Mary Tillman. You see, she is the anti-Sheehan. Not because of politics, but because she’s somebody who has asked important questions free from the rhetorically dishonest pattern that Sheehan so easily fell into.
Well it looks like Mother Tillman’s persistence has paid off since her son’s death is getting another look.
From CNN:
An inspector general ordered the Army Criminal Investigative Division to determine if Tillman’s death resulted from negligent homicide, sources said.Initial reports after his death said Tillman, 27, was shot and killed by Taliban forces during an ambush on April 22, 2004. An investigation later revealed that fellow soldiers shot Tillman, thinking he was part of an enemy force firing at them.
Tillman’s family demanded to know why his uniform and body armor were burned a day after he was killed and why they were not immediately told he might have been killed by fellow soldiers.
Now, do I expect any serious charges to come from this inquiry? No. This types of probes usually end up finding that something horrible happened, with the punishment ultimately being how heavy the guilty party’s conscience weighs on them in the years to come.
But Mary, do know that this is vindication. Your son and your family deserves nothing less than the complete truth coming to the fore, and I for one applaud the military for finally owning up to the mistakes that they made that tragic day.
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 5th, 2006 and is filed under The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 7th, 2006 at 2:57 pm
Mary Tillman deserves answers …. I hope they do the investigation in a reasonable fashion and timeline …. and give her the answers she certainly deserves. I also hope that the politicians stay out of it …. cause I smell an election issue here …. and that would suck!
March 7th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
I’ve never been in combat, or in the military. But my instinct is to not be particularly judgemental of soldiers who accidentally kill one of their own in a combat situation. I can only imagine how confusing and terrifying it can be on the battlefield, and friendly fire incidents have been with us as long as warfare has.
To the extent that specific military regulations were violated, I guess the military has to investigate. But to me the real crime happened later, when higher-ups with plenty of time to consider their actions elected to lie to the family and the country. George Bush presented a taped tribute to Tillman at an Arizona Cardinals’ game as an election tool, at a time when the Pentagon very likely knew that the whole story was a fraud. I’m not saying Bush knew it was a fraud (although I really don’t believe it would have made a difference if he did) but at the least someone in the Pentagon let him go forward with a patently false story. I’ll be waiting to see if anyne pays the price for that one.
March 7th, 2006 at 11:53 pm
Even if somebody knew something about it, this administration is bullet proof given their stranglehold over the House and the Senate. Nothing will happen.