But first, it must be stated than seeking out motives for raw homicide requires acknowledging that the novice status of the shooter is the best argument that it was an accident and the best argument that it was murder.
A Ranger who trained at the same time as Tillman, but never crossed paths with him, confided in me that at first Tillman's presence in the regiment was met with disdain. One reason cited was that he was allowed to skate through the grueling training -- no matter how matter of fact my Ranger acquaintance makes it sound. It was thought that, hot to field a centerfold Ranger, the Army gave Tillman a free pass. Such rumors could be chalked up to jealousy -- another reason he wasn't taken seriously because of his wealth.
By all reports, though, Tillman avoided perks like the plague. Also, he not only turned down countless requests for interviews and photo ops, he refused to appear on posters or in recruitment videos.
However, Tillman's refusal to recruit or market the war likely frustrated the command. While it can't be ascertained when it learned of his opposition to the Iraq War or his advocacy of Kerry, insult was likely added to injury. No doubt most galling of all was his encouragement to other soldiers to think for themselves. "He helped me grow as an individual," Collier quoted Baer.
"Many will suspect and want to know," Mike Ruppert wrote, "if Pat Tillman was deliberately murdered to prevent his coming home to guest spots on ESPN, CNN, and all the networks." Among those who suspect is the author of the following post to a message board. He claims he was told by veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq "that there are a lot of nut jobs who make no qualms about fragging or exposing dissenters to enemy fire."
To suggest that Tillman was shot because he wasn't the Rangers' kind of patriot strains credulity. However, if only to facilitate the process of elimination, this scenario needs to be aired. Overhearing reports of brass' frustration with Tillman, might a young soldier, like a goon takes the hint while listening to his boss think out loud, have taken the bulls by the horns and carried out a hit?
Marginally more likely, once the shooting started and he panicked and killed the Afghan, did it suddenly strike him as imperative that he silence the honorable Tillman lest he identify him as the shooter? Or, crazed with fear, did the shooter think that he could exercise some damage control over killing the Afghan by doing brass the favor of taking out Tillman?
Finally, might Tillman's final words -- "Cease fire! Friendlies! I am Pat (expletive) Tillman damn it!" -- have pushed the shooter over the edge? After all, those words only confirmed what he'd heard about Tillman capitalizing on his fame. (Reminder: This is conspiricist-think, not the author.)
However, as one of the few credible voices to emerge from this sorry episode, Spc. Baer's carries more weight than the rest of us hypothesizers put together. Informing Collier that, "The guys who killed Pat were his biggest fans," he also claimed Tillman had no enemies. Apparently the jealous rumors hot on the heels of Tillman's enlistment dissipated once his fellow Rangers got to know him.
At this point, a quick review is in order. Tillman was shot at; he called out, waved his arms, and lit a smoke grenade; the shooting halted; he rose; the shooting resumed and he was wounded; while down and crying out, he was shot again and killed. To chalk up this sequence of events to rank amateurism and panic requires almost as great a leap of imagination as believing he was intentionally killed by a member of his own platoon.
However, despite the appearance of a planned assassination in action, there's no accounting for how one behaves in his first firefight. The man who shot Tillman was likely guilty of negligent homicide. Raw homicide is a charge best leveled at someone other than an enlisted man.
Did Noam Chomsky Get Tillman Killed?
Committing Tillman's removal to one's wish list is bad enough; engineering it another. If grunt killing grunt is a perversion of the term fragging, brass killing grunt is a total inversion that turns the concept inside out.
When the Humvee became disabled, might the brass have sensed an opportunity? Is that why the platoon was denied a helicopter, split up in enemy territory, and forced to attempt to maneuver a vehicle that, arguably, was disposable through narrow canyon passes? Most damning, is that why the platoon was ordered to resume moving during the day?
As Baer told Collier, "It's a well-known military doctrine. . . if you are in enemy territory and you are stopped for a prolonged period of time, the best thing to do is to wait until nightfall."
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