I'm sure you recall all the media coverage regarding the death of Pat Tillman, the Army Ranger who died while fighting in Afghanistan in the same unit as his brother, the same Pat Tillman who gave up a lucrative NFL contract to join the Army to defend our country. Other soldiers before and after him had and have died, but his death got all the attention because he gave up so much to fight terrorism. I didn't have a problem with all the coverage, I wish every fallen soldier would get the same attention for their bravery. But Tillman's situation was milked for everything the government could get out of it.
Now, buried in the papers (if it's even covered at all) is the news that Army officials knew within days that Tillman had been killed by friendly fire, but didn't inform his family and the public for weeks.
In fact, the Army had determined that Tillman died of gross negligence FOUR days before the nationally televised memorial. Obviously, "someone" knew that the media coverage would change significantly if they had this information. In death, Tillman was used.
Don't get me wrong, a soldier's death, whether it be by friendly or enemy fire, is a tragic occurrence. It doesn't matter where the bullet came from. What's sad is that someone, somewhere, said let's wait until the memorial is over so this doesn't become a story about what went wrong. Let's take advantage of Tillman's notoreity to build support for this war.
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