Pat Tillman, as seen from the Extreme Left
I won't even comment on this. At least not right now.…
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Ted Rall - Comments Page 2
Pat Tillman, as seen from the Extreme Left
I won't even comment on this. At least not right now.…
Article comments
26 - Jim Carruthers
His family doesn't deserve the whatever it is that the right-wing cabal is trying to build heroics. For some dumb jock who got killed.
Yes, it's bad he got killed. But he wasn't a hero. He was just another death. In fact just a schmuck. Just like the others who've died there.
Short story, don't go there.
27 - boomcrashbaby
RJ, I looked at that cartoon twice to make sure, but I see it more as a commentary of those who send soldiers out (it says Tillman was just a cog...), then commentary about the media which is always looking for a sensational story (it says let's make him a hero....), etc.
Maybe I'm misreading it, but it looks like the cartoonist just put a human face on the soldier, that of Tillman, but that the commentary might be more about the plight of the American soldier today.
I think though if I lost a family member in Iraq and I read that cartoon about them, like Tillman's family might have read that, I would be even more emotionally devastated. It does seem an awful harsh way to make a point, whatever that point may be.
To everybody (the media) who's saying that Tillman is some special hero though because he walked away from millions to fight, I'd like to point out that he is no more a hero than a soldier who went into the army just out of college, with little money and then died. They are ALL the same, they are all heros. Walking away from money does not elevate someone on a higher plain towards martyrdom. It shouldn't anyway. It sounds like the money was no big deal to him, it shouldn't be to us either then. All American soldiers who die in the war on terror are heros equally for what they give for us.
Kudos to Ted Koppel for acknowledging them all. And no surprise under this administration some stations censored him.
28 - Scott Pepper
Tillman was not a hero because he played football or because he gave up a million-dollar contract to serve his country.
He was a hero because he laid down his own life to save the lives of his fellow soliders.
29 - john
I'm new to this forum but have to comment on the ravings of Jim Carruthers.
Jim,
To refer to Tillman as a "dumb jock" and "fucking idiot" and to everyone who has died in Iraq as "schmucks" is ludicrous. You apparently think you know more about Tillman's character than his family does.
I do agree with your comments regarding the fact that this whole "hero" scenario is being overplayed to the hilt by the pro-war political faction, but let's give the guys in the trenches a break. I spent a short time in VietNam and don't recall anyone asking me if I wanted to go there. And if I had been unfortunate enough to come back in a body bag, my family and friends wouldn't appreciate me being referred to as a "schmuck". This damn war is a mess but the guys on the frontlines are not the ones making it so.
Calm down Jim. Pop a few downers, have a glass of wine and enjoy life. Cool those jets!
30 - joni
To the [critics of Tillman] ... you people are so hateful you disgust me. So perhaps this is something you will understand.
[Admin: Paragraph removed and previous sentence edited, personal attacks are a violation of the site comment policy.]
Anybody that can defame the good name of somebody who has died, regardless if they were a soldier, Democrat or a Republican is severely FUCKED-UP!
Go get some help while I sharpen my dancing skills for your grave.
31 - Jim Carruthers
"Coming Home In A Body Bag" was one of my favourite movies. Only surpassed by "Body Bags 2".
I didn't disparage Tillman's character, but anybody who would go into a situation which has been killing people for more than century, in aid of a war based on lies and deceit, well, I guess, dumb, idiot and schmuck would enter in to it at some point. Cannon fodder isn't noble or heroic. It is just stupid. To willingly engage in that is even more stupid.
It's like G. Gordon Liddy's observation about prison -- who's dumber, the convicts, or the guys who make a choice to work there?
32 - sheri
Indymedia MUCH?
33 - Natalie Davis
I wouldn't call Tillman a hero. Neither would I call him an idiot. He did what he thought was right, however horrible I consider his decision. But I see the Rall cartoon in much the same way as BCB. All of the deaths, including Tillman's, are tragic. And so is the fact that so many chose to become cogs in the wheels of the Death Brigade in its unconscionable actions. As for Rall himself, I like some of his work and loathe some of it. Frankly, I think the Tillman piece, though a bit cruel and insensitive, makes a very good point.
34 - Natalie Davis
Oh, and as for MSNBC, it had the right to pull the cartoon. And I have the right to see the outlet as a huge pussy.
35 - Jim Carruthers
Indymedia MUCH?
And this means what? What is Indeymdia and what is MUCH (do they march with signs?) Is this like something coming through a tight round muscle?
36 - Jim Carruthers
Oh, wait, is Indie Media them which covers the 500, but that's only once the year, and I told you Lurlean, nots to distracts me when I ain't got money on the race.
Jeebus, what is the problem with you hicks?
37 - sheri
Comment 36:
Yaaaaa. Extreme left wing nutzzz, trashing Pat Tillman like a discarded baby diaper. Puhleeze, if you don't think he's a hero, fine. Why bring in all your American f*khead rhetoric?
38 - Jim Carruthers
Sheri, the porta-potties and bastard child changing stations are over there on the west side of the track. But hurry back, because the nitro-burning funny cars are going to start soon.
39 - sheri
Was it good for you? LMAOOOOOO
40 - RJ Elliott
Ted Rall recently called the President "evil" and the present administration's foreign policy "evil" as well.
You cannot argue with the dogmatic. And I suspect Jimmy C. believes the whole of the US is "evil" and not just its government and foreign policy...
41 - Jim Carruthers
Actually, RJ, just having the US administration and foreign policy is about enough evil as I can handle. After all, there must be a physical limit to how many humans can suck Satan's cock.
You've already got Shrub, Karl Rove, Rummie and Chaney, plus a lineup. More than I can comprehend.
Do I really have to start believing Hell is a real place? Because that's where you and your kind are going.
42 - Jim Carruthers
And sadly, along with idiot football players, you seem intent on dragging the rest of us along.
I love my dead gay son.
43 - Natalie Davis
As far as Shrub and his henchpersons being involved in evil deeds, I'm with Rall. And in terms of those supporting Shrub & Co.'s terrorist acts wanting to drag dissenters into the depths into which they sink, I'm with Jim. It is all more than sad. Resist!
44 - RJ Elliott
Jimmy:
It's "Cheney" not Chaney.
Question: Who is more "evil": Bush, Cheney, and "Rummy", or Saddam, Arafat, and Castro?
45 - Natalie Davis
Does it matter? Avoid evildoers like the plague, I say. That whole "pick the lesser-of-two-evils" guarantees that one picks evil, which is in and of itself evil. I'll pass, thanks.
46 - RJ Elliott
Natalie,
Serious Question:
Are you a JW? You're a Lefty who still is a strong believer in her religion (no divorce), and finds the use of force vile.
JW is my best guess. Am I right?
47 - Natalie Davis
Wrong, wrong, wrong, Mr. Elliott, although I make a point of being very nice to JWs who visit me with pamphlets on weekends.
I am a born and bred Catholic catechist and religious-education teacher who fled the church narly 15 years ago and now attends a Protestant church; celebrates Jewish holidays (as I have my whole life, thanks to my grandpa); studies Gandhi, Judaism, and Buddhism; and identifies as a liberal-progressive pacifist Christian. Violence is never the answer, IMO.
48 - RJ Elliott
ND:
I thank you for your response. I guess my prediction was wrong... :-/
Oh, well. I predicted the Mavs over the Kings, and the Red Wings over the Flames. I sorta suck at predictions. Which is why I don't go to the Dog Track! ;-]
My next prediction: Bush wins twelve million Electoral College Votes, and Kerry is attacked with a rubber hose. Nader is named Prime Minister of Madison, WI. Dan Qualye is caught making love to a potato(e).
Wanna bet? ;-]
49 - Natalie Davis
I'm not a gambler, unlike Bill Bennett.
50 - RJ Elliott
Heh...