A Letter from Kevin Tillman
jaymack
5,199 Posts
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/By Kevin TillmanEditor???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.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 got out.Much has happened since we handed over our voice: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.Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.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.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.Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.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.Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.Somehow torture is tolerated.Somehow lying is tolerated.Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.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.Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.Somehow this is tolerated.Somehow nobody is accountable for this.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.Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat???s birthday. 
Comments
great
hindsight is 20/20
what a waste of a life....trading a heisman trophy for a bodybag.
kneejerk patriotism at its best /worst
the poor tillman brothers/family
how is the tillman family any different than the other 2,999 families greiving about their losses from this criminal act known as operation enduring freedom?
The tillman brothers I am sure meant well and all enlisting for active combat duty infuriated and anxious to help out after 9/11
now look at you
shot dead by your own troops and weapons and then the insuing coverup.
One Tillman dead the other converted to a flaming pinko hippy commie faggot peacenick who now sees the light and the "TRUTH".
this just in.......politians don't give a fuck who you play ball for or who dies for their bullshit cause
it takes a death in the family sometimes for folks to realize what the government is all about
you are fucked up.
go away.
what is your problem?
where am i wrong?
weak people can't handle the truth
sabadababada returns.
At least Saba could spell.
in all fairness most accounts say Pat Tillman was a flaming hippy commie faggot before he enlisted, and his main reason for enlisting was his love of the country that allowed him to be so.
yes. he read a ton, questioned everything...hell, how many people in the army at ANY level had read the koran?
Kevin's letter is poignant, and spectacular; i fear it is too easily written off, as it so clearly written from emotion. But, you know what? he has every right to question the authority that he signed his life over to. Not just because of military and governmental lies on a grand scale; he saw their lies and disregard for dignity on a micro scale, as they used his brothers life and death for propaganda.
He might know more about this first hand than some of us on the Soulstrut Message board. Just maybe...
all my interaction with you has been negative
basically you don't like my opinion on anything at all
and you have started shit 3 times now because you don't like how i think
its a public forum
too bad
So far you have called me IGNORANT,
likened me to sabbadabda
And I'm a flaming poptart....great
then you admit i might be right but that I am IGNORANT
get your facts straight sonny
point out where i am dishonest or factually wrong
and back it up with something other than name calling
i am not trying to shock people,but
as a famous sailor once said
"i am what I am...and thats all that I am"
my approach is first thought purest thought
no editor just gut instinct
visual/guttural/retnal/hst/thc/lsd/keasey and stream of the flow from the "show me "state of mind
like it or not i don't think or wriet like mos t kid z
I can't front,and not to blow my own maceo BUTT
if the shitstorm evercame down you will be happy that a crazy azz motherfucker like me is on your side sniping and merking bitchez like sabbadabb and the gop
i am concerned with the least common denominator in any given situation
in my world the clock is always ticking against me
so i figure there is no time for candy coating shit
especially when talking bout life or death
also I am blunt
you are also laughable. that is some of the most undeserved, self-congrulatory and self-absorbed shit i've ever read on here.
you are a fool.
unedited.
thanks for the sp check lawrence durrell
bring it on
everybody dis me NOW
c'mon whos next for a piss?
if i wrote for a living like you my shit would be spot on
so again sorry if i offended you and your disconnect dictionary approach
i only know of one other interaction w/ you and i was joking around. you replied to your own post two times.
calling someone a "faggot" doesnt make ya seem very intellectual. i can tell by the way you post that you want attention, well here you go. im done.
Kevin Tilmann is being watched by the FBI/homeland security /orwellthugs/the central scrutinizer
memos have been written
all of his emails/ph calls/mail are being scoured for his opinions
his personal contacts and anti war actions will be followed
a case officer has been assigned
a special office in the pentagon is also involved
if you think otherwise you are only fooling yourself
so full of authority
i will do as i please thanks
you are an insult to his writing.
the commie pinko faggot line is a cultural reference to a specific mindset and trope that of the average union affiliated construction worker who where opposed to hippies and anti VIETNAM war demonstrators in the 60s and 70s
these folks attacked peace activists in NYC in the early 1970s-
if my use of the word "faggot " offends you
well
and what have you written?
save terse one liners?
u go on user ignore now
i'm the big winner here.
case in point
no backup just empty opinion
show me what you have written in this thread or on this forum that is so amazing
tell me about keasey
I met him and leary at the same time in [email]1989@NYU[/email]
so please son and sonny
back up
p fucking s
looks like its me vs the board again because i state my opinion and i can't spell
*this post ignored*
This is bigger than any Dems/Reps bullshit, this is a major turning point in the history of the world.
You must not have been reading his posts carefully. Dude was a world class spelling scofflaw....
This approach doesn't usually make for the most well-reasoned arguments. Sometimes you actually need to think about something before writing or speaking.
You remind me of a few people I met in college. Bad stream-of-consciousness is bad stream-of-consciousness.
thanks professor jazzercise
your literary opinion and extensive published works proceed you.
the thread was og about kevin tillman
not my writing style or lack of
interestingly it has morphed into yet another attack on my speling and opiniions
kea zy
keyze
kesey
keasey
he would be happy i am upsetting you all and your little rules
there are no rules and your reality is not mine
funny how there is zero margin for spelling error or opinion or individuality in this so called "forum"
if it were face to face conversation instead of some protracted digital approximation of a conversation i think people would handle my spelling errors and my opinion a bit differently
i am glad to offend narrow minded stuffed shirt assholes who think they are gods gift to the pen
who the fuck are you?
i am supposed to be in awe because you write for wax po or graduated Berkley?
i came from the school of hard knocks i am lucky i can read and write at all
fucking academic funkologists who have 0 street cred but report on it anyway
for the record if you don't like my opinion or the way i write block me as a user
The word is PRECEDE. If you're wondering why your points don't come across it might have something to do with you not using language correctly. To quote someone else from the School of Hard Knocks (Class of '92): Read a book you illiterate sonofabitch and step up your vocab.
You and HarveyCanal should have a conversation about how to truly appreciate THE FUNK.
HarveyCanal: You need to eat some ribs to understand it.
Kala: No no no it's al about not waitin to think how to spel somethn rite and just sey whateverr cums to yor mine
to get back on track; that long sentence about the various justifications is excellent. is that in chronological order?
Are you saying you support this?
are you implying tha aclu is as parnoid and fucked up as me or that there is no wool over everyones eyes and yall not asleep ladyday?
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spyfiles/index.html
The Government Is Spying on Americans
Documents obtained by the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the FBI is using its Joint Terrorism Task Forces to gather extensive information about peaceful organizations. Recently, President Bush acknowledged giving explicit and secret authorization for warrantless electronic eavesdropping and physical searches by the National Security Agency. Now, there is reason to believe that the Pentagon, too, is illegally gathering and sharing private and protected information.
Tell the phone company to stop spying >>
The actions of the president, his administration, and these agencies are part of a broad pattern of disregard for the rule of law in the name of national security. The ACLU is calling for investigations and full disclosure of records to determine if oaths of office were broken or federal laws violated.
Pentagon
The ACLU has filed a FOIA request to uncover who is being spied on by the Pentagon. News reports have revealed the Pentagon is collecting information in a secret database on peace groups and law-abiding Americans who have attended anti-war protests.
More About Illegal Pentagon Spying >>
National Security Agency
President Bush acknowledged authorizing the NSA to engage in warrantless electronic spying and physical searches of Americans. The ACLU is leading the challenge to stop this program and has filed a lawsuit on behalf of journalists, scholars and attorneys.
More About Illegal NSA Spying >>
FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force
Documents obtained by the ACLU expose wide-ranging investigations into peaceful organizations by the FBI and its Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The FBI is using counterterrorism resources to monitor and infiltrate political advocacy groups.
More About Illegal Fuckery