At the time, the military issued a standard press release which the New York Times parroted--US personnel "were hit by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The American troops called in for reinforcements and attack helicopters. In the ensuing firefight, the statement said, "the two Reuters employees and nine insurgents were killed."
Of course, that whitewash was generated by Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, commander of the Army's 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment. He's the guy who "told ESPN that the reluctance of Tillman's parents to accept the military's story that he was killed by enemy action, rather than friendly fire, was the unfortunate result of their lack of Christian faith."
As you may recall Pat Tillman, AZ Cardinal football hero, patriotically set down football to join the military to honor his country early in the war. He quickly soured on the war in Afghanistan, prepared to speak out against it, even started contacting reporters and Noam Chomsky, of all people, and promptly caught a bullet between the eyes. Friendly fire. What a lovely term for murder. The story the military and their lapdogs the press told migrated farther than a runaway teen with a hundred dollar bus ticket. Wikipedia summarizes the shifts the story took as our government reluctantly admitted the truth:
"The Army initially claimed that Tillman and his unit were attacked in an apparent ambush ". An Afghan militia soldier was killed, and two other Rangers were injured as well ". A more thorough investigation concluded that no hostile forces were involved in the firefight and that two allied groups fired on each other in confusion after a nearby explosive device was detonated ". On July 26, 2007, the AP received official documents stating that the investigating doctors performing the autopsy suspected that Tillman was murdered." And Tillman is only one of a string of "mysterious battle field deaths." According to a 2006 USA Today story as many as 40% of the deaths reported to surviving families were filled with distortions.
For us here in the US, American war corruption (pick a flavor--Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater, Triple Canopy, or last month's latest poster boy, Col. Kevin Davis) is but an annoying distraction between commercials. Like most of our dealings with all the narco-states America favors with our dollars (both in the form of military aid to "stamp out the evil scourge" over there and being their number one customer over here), places like Vietnam in the 60s, Nicaragua in the 80s, perennial favorites Mexico and Colombia and now the poppy capital of the world, thanks to none other than the policies of George W Bush; tolerating the local corruption is just part of doing business. But in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, the way America does business is a daily slap in the face.
The American public is routinely told we need to have faith. Though it may take decades and trillions America will rebuild Afghanistan in our own image. A drug fueled economy, corruption in high places, phony elections, and religious fanatics trying to control everything while the supposed watch dogs look the other way? We may already be there. And after spending 10 years in bed with the drug dealing Karzai brothers, it appears the flowers they've been greeting us with have been poppies all along and we're the ones who are hooked.
--mikel weisser writes from the left coast of AZ.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
