Tillman's brother breaks silence

John Faherty
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 21, 2006 12:00 AM

Kevin Tillman has finally spoken.

The former Army Ranger served in Iraq and Afghanistan along with his older brother, Pat Tillman, who was celebrated as a paradigm of American patriotism when he quit the Arizona Cardinals to join the Army.

Kevin has remained silent since his brother's 2004 death. But, this week, he wrote what can only be described as a scathing indictment of the war in Iraq, the Bush administration and American apathy.

"Somehow, the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes," Kevin wrote on Truthdig.com, which purchased his work.

The brothers, both Arizona State University graduates, joined the Army in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The brothers served together as Rangers with the 2nd Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment.

They were in Afghanistan when Pat, 27, was killed by friendly fire in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border.

Since his discharge from the Army, Kevin has not spoken publicly about the war or his brother's death.

But in Truthdig.com, Kevin wrote openly about the war and America's response to it.

"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."

After starring for Arizona State University's Sun Devils, Pat Tillman was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in 1998. He played with the team for four years.

On Sept. 12, 2001, he gave an interview in which he talked about how "stupid" football seemed relative to world events.

"At times like this, you stop and think about not only how good we have it but what kind of system we live under," Pat said.

"My great-grandfather was at Pearl Harbor. And a lot of my family has gone and fought in wars. And I really haven't done a damn thing as far as laying myself on the line like that."

In the spring of 2002, Pat was on the verge of signing another contract with the team when he decided to join the Army, instead.

Kevin, who played minor-league baseball after playing at ASU, joined the Army with his brother.

The Tillmans were initially sent to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In 2003, the brothers returned to the U.S. for training to become Army Rangers.

After that, they were sent to Afghanistan.

Kevin stayed in the Army until his discharge last year.

In the aftermath of Pat's death, his family would come to vehemently criticize the Army's investigation of the events that led to Pat's death and the Army's actions after he was killed.

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Editor’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.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/

After Pat’s Birthday

Posted on Oct 19, 2006

By Kevin Tillman

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 get 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.

Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,

Kevin Tillman

Late last week, just after I posted a link to an essay by Kevin Tillman, Pat's brother, on the blog that I do for azcentral.com, the hyenas showed up.

"It's a hoax," more than one of them said. But it's not.

Ever since Pat's death in 2004, reporters from all over the nation, including me, have been trying to reach Kevin, who served with Pat and was discharged from the service last year. He hadn't spoken before his essay was published last week on a Web site called Truthdig.com, however.

And he holds no punches. He says of the current administration, "Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated. . . . Somehow lying is tolerated."

Still, as one doubter wrote on my blog, "I do know that there are hundreds of 'essays' out there that are hoaxes."

Truthdig.com is a Web site run by legitimate journalists. The editor, Robert Scheer, was a columnist at the Los Angeles Times. His wife is working on a book with Mary Tillman, the mother of Pat and Kevin.

Scheer told me that he's known Kevin for some time but "didn't push him" to speak publicly. Adding: "Kevin is a very private person. He doesn't want to grandstand, doesn't want to do anything big. But he had this piece, and we published it."

Pat Tillman also was accused of getting special treatment. As this e-mail to me said: "There has been a total of 2,788 men that have died in this war. Pat Tillman is no different than any one of them."

Actually, he is different. Not because he was a pro athlete who gave up a lucrative contract to serve but because of what happened to him after his death. No other casualty was so callously exploited for politics. Information about Pat's death from friendly fire was withheld until long after his nationally televised funeral.

As Pat's mother, Mary Tillman, told me, "They could have told us up front that they were suspicious that it was a fratricide, but they didn't. They wanted to use him for their purposes. It was good for the administration. It was before the elections. It was during the prison scandal. They needed something that looked good, and it was appalling that they would use him like that."

Kevin Tillman didn't garner the attention of his more famous brother. But he, too, put his life on the line.

"He (Kevin) is a very formidable guy, a very smart guy," Scheer said. "I think he deserves attention."

Those who support the current administration's policy might not like what Tillman has to say. For instance, he wrote, "Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country. Somehow this is tolerated."

And: "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."

You can read the whole thing at Truth dig.com, on montiniblog.azcentral.com or in this coming Sunday's Arizona Republic Viewpoints section.

Kevin writes that Nov. 6, the day before Election Day, is Pat's birthday. And that elections can change things.

He's passionate and angry in a way that some might find over the top. But not me. I have a brother of my own.

Reach Montini at (602) 444-8978 or ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com. Read his blog at montiniblog.azcentral.com.