Right Ignoring How Gov’t Disgraced Pat Tillman’s Death as They Call for Him to Replace Kaepernick

in news •  7 years ago  (edited)

 
On Monday, Nike made headlines and created a massive controversy when  it announced Colin Kaepernick is one of the new faces in its “Just Do  It” campaign. The move by Nike caused people to take to social media and  burn their Nike gear, call for a boycott, and many began calling for  Kaepernick to be replaced in the campaign by seventh-round NFL draft  pick turned soldier, Pat Tillman. Missing the point completely, those calling for Tillman to be the  face of Nike as a show of respect to the country, are clearly ignoring  the fact that the US government lied to cover up his death and is the  epitome of disrespecting the troops.   

When he began his career, Tillman wasted no time in setting records  for tackles on the football field for the Arizona Cardinals. But in the  Spring of 2002, after marrying his childhood sweetheart, Tillman walked  away from his multi-million-dollar NFL salary and joined the Army with  his brother. His sacrifice undoubtedly embodied the heroism and  dedication to one’s country. Tillman’s departure from the NFL was widely publicized, as was his  death on the battlefield of Afghanistan in 2004. The Pentagon, President  George W. Bush, and what seemed like all of America, celebrated  Tillman’s heroic death. 

However, Tillman’s death was not heroic by any  means. He was shot and killed by his fellow U.S. soldiers.  But once the deception about his story was propagandized, little could  be done to undo how the military and the White House had capitalized on  his death. The move by those on social media to use Tillman as their  spokesperson has sparked backlash from one of Tillman’s personal  friends—who also quit the NFL to join the military—Jeremy Staat.

 “In response to the Nike ad that is circulating. Please do not use  Pat Tillman as a ploy for your political views,” Staat, a former ASU and  NFL defensive lineman, wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday. “Pat was  not a conservative [R]epublican, he did not believe in the Iraq War, he  was not a Christian, and with the government and military  handling of his death and the lies that followed I do believe that Pat  would value the players’ protest against police brutality and  inequality.”

 Staat, as if he read the TFTP article from Tuesday,  then encouraged those who were gloating that they could burn a $100  pair of sneakers on Twitter, to go and donate them to a local veterans  organization instead. 

As ABC 15 reports, like Tillman, Staat wanted to leave pro football  in order to enlist in the armed forces after the Sept. 11 terror  attacks. Tillman convinced Staat to remain in the NFL until he was  eligible for retirement benefits, but after Tillman died, Staat followed in his friend’s footsteps by enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps in 2006, and he did a seven-month tour in Iraq in 2007. 

In 2006, The Guardian published a story, titled, “The footballer who became a war hero who became a scandal,”  in which author Lawrence Donegan revealed the dastardly actions the  government took to rewrite Tillman’s history. Donegan described how all  was going well for the Bush Administration’s “War on Terror” when  Tillman decided to enlist. He wrote: 

“For the Bush administration, recently embarked on its  ‘war on terror,’ Tillman’s story was an enormous PR boost. Professional  athlete eschews fortune for patriotic duty—not even a White House well  versed in spinning self-serving propaganda could have dreamed up such a  perfect recruitment story. Tillman finished his basic training in time  to be sent to Iraq as part of the US invasion force, before he was sent  to Afghanistan in early 2004.”

But all that changed in 2004 when it was learned that the Pentagon’s  poster boy had been shot and killed. Instead of telling the truth about  Tillman’s death, the decision was made to spin a web of lies and deceit.  The heartbreaking reality that he had been killed by his fellow platoon  members was, evidently, too dangerous for national security—so much so  that an invention of a superhero was birthed. The substitution of  stories created a mythical hero out of Tillman on the level of G.I. Joe  and was immediately used to further the recruiting efforts of what has  now become America’s longest war. Donegan writes: 

“The Pentagon immediately announced Tillman had died a  heroic death while fighting the Taliban. George W Bush, whose own  patriotism never stretched to completing his Texas National Guard duty,  spoke of Tillman’s ‘ultimate sacrifice for the war on terror’ and  offered to record a tribute to be broadcast during a live NFL game. The  soldier was awarded a posthumous Silver Star. On April 30 an Army press  release described how Tillman was killed while storming enemy  positions.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. It would take a full 10  years before a guilt-ridden ex-soldier broke his silence about what he  says happened the night Tillman was killed. Steven Elliott told NPR that he and his squad leader, Sgt. Greg Baker, were the ones who opened fire on Tillman’s position. 

The platoon had divided into two groups that went in separate  directions. After the first group was ambushed by Afghan fighters, the  confusion on the battlefield led Elliott and Baker to open up machine  gun fire on Tillman’s location and the former NFL football player, along  with 19-year-old Bryan O’Neal, were killed. 

“I remember thinking for just a second or two, but what felt like  longer—your perception of time in the midst of a firefight can be  distorted—that if he’d fired, and without any other information to  indicate a friendly position, that I should also fire,” Elliott said, noting that his squad leader fired first, and then he joined in. 

He said he was instructed by his superiors not to discuss the  friendly fire incident outside of his unit. The military knew it had a  PR problem on its hands but Elliott said he was too naive to believe  they would spin it into a web of deception. “I was operating on a certain level of naiveté, I believe,” Elliot said. 

“[I thought] senior leaders were trying to protect the family, and I had no idea they were being deceived at any point.” 

Elliott said he has always wanted to speak with Pat Tillman’s  brother, Kevin, about Pat’s death, and he admitted that he struggles  with how to approach the family. He told NPR he knows the family feels  deceived by its government.

 “I always felt like I didn’t know what to say to Kevin,” Elliot said. “It  felt like something that you just wanted to avoid, and it grieves me to  no end that I didn’t make the effort at that time…I always felt very  conflicted about that … I knew that they were very, just hurt beyond  belief … [both in] losing Pat but then in the grief and the confusion of  the deception.” 

What started out as a glorious embark towards battle, ended in a  tragic yet completely avoidable death. Just as Americans were told  Benghazi was a knee-jerk mob reaction to an anti-Islam film and not a coordinated attack to commemorate 9/11, so were people told Tillman’s death was a heroic one. 

Strangely enough, Americans know they were lied to about Benghazi and  held several congressional hearings on the failures of leadership in  Libya, but with Tillman, he is still celebrated as a hero—as the calls  for him to be in this Nike ad illustrate. 

Tillman was the epitome of a scholar-athlete. His self-sacrifice and  service to his country should be celebrated. But somewhere along the  way, someone should be held accountable for the lies perpetrated upon  the American people about his death and no Nike ad will do  this. 

Instead, not only has no one ever faced consequences for deceiving  an entire nation, but deception originating from the highest executive  office, its cabinet, and the military continues to this day. 

Administrations come and go, but the lies remain and it has become obvious that they are working. For an even deeper look into Pat Tillman’s life and death, consider “Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman,” written by Jon Krakauer. He noted that much of Tillman’s death still remains a mystery: 

“When a soldier is killed in combat, you should put his  uniform, his weapon, everything—anything that can be considered forensic  evidence should be sent back to the States with the body, so the  medical examiners could determine the cause of death. In the case of  Tillman, none of that happened.”

Krakauer told NPR that he uncovered more disturbing facts, such as that “Tillman’s uniform and body armor were burned,” and that “his weapon, helmet, even a part of his brain, which fell to the ground after the attack, disappeared.” Krakauer also noted that: 

“In July 2007, the Associated Press published an article  reporting that the Navy pathologist who performed Tillman’s autopsy  testified that the forensic evidence indicated Tillman had been shot  three times in the head from a distance of thirty-five feet or less. The  article prompted widespread speculation on the Internet and in the  mainstream press that he had been deliberately murdered.”

What is crystal clear is that the U.S. military lied, covered up  Tillman’s murder, and then used his story for pro-war propaganda. Now,  it has been 14 years and people are still buying the propaganda. 

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Tillman was going to break the propaganda matrix over USA. Not 'just' the 'illegal' NATO wars in the middle east but, he was also going to bring down the entire 911 war on terror narrative hoax. The globalists assassinated Tillman with the same motives THEY had JFK assassinated.

"...a glorious embark towards battle, ended in a tragic yet completely avoidable death."

Don't it just always?

Personally, I consider Pat Tillman the perfect poster boy for military adventurism. Fooled by the 9/11 false flag attack into becoming a weapon of aggressive war against innocent people in a nation that never has, and never will, attack the US, and then killed by US troops, I hope his example leads droves of would be mercenaries for banksters to stay away from war their entire lives.

Let's quit killing people so criminals can take their shit and bill us for the wars. No better example of why not to could be found than Pat Tillman.