Last Ranger to see Pat Tillman alive says told to conceal info

That's pretty sad.

But just a side note: Little Jessica Lynch sure has grown up.

 

As sad as the Tillman affair may be, is it really such a scandal that it deserves the time, effort, and public dollars that Waxman and company are lavishing on these hearings?

And I feel for the family, but isn't it time for them to move on from the tragedy? There are still men and women serving and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq - why do the Tillmans deserve such a spotlight?

 

its not about the tillmans or his death.. its about lies and manipulation of truth regarding someones death for political purposes

 

Blah blah they should get over it.

Blah blah blah, this kind of thing happens, what's the big deal?


What other phrases am I forgetting that have been used to disparage this family's search for the truth?

 

George W. Bush's administration laid bare.

A Soldier was told to lie about the death of a comrade.

LIE!?!

Nothing more needs to be said about who is being disingenuous about trying to stop this war. Democrats have not lost this war by trying to stop it. This war was lost with the lie that started it.

 

Everyone's known for a long time that Pat Tillman died from friendly fire, what's the big mystery?

To say that a Lt. Colonel on the ground asking a soldier not to go into the details of Pat Tillman's death with his brother means that that the White House was involved in a "cover-up" seems to be a pretty big stretch.

Um, I think Pat Tillman died in Afghanistan - as far as I know, nobody has accused the Democrats of trying to stop that war. What IS obvious is that the Democrats seem hell-bent on making political points out of the whole Tillman affair. Wouldn't that effort and time be better spent on debating more important issues?

 

Friendly fire or enemy fire: Pat Tillman died a hero.

 

i don't think no ones disagreeing that he's a hero

but would you lie to a hero's family about a hero's death?

 

everyone know monica bj'd clinton, what's the big mystery?

so what does it mean? what was the motivation behind it?

 

You're right, Clinton should have done the country a big favor and just stepped down.

We're talking about one of the on-scene commanders here right? Maybe he didn't want to upset Kevin Tillman? Maybe it was an emotional decision? Who knows? Either way what does it have to do with the White House or politics?

 

are you saying wh didn't know the truth as well?

 

I'm not trying to say this incident should be politicized, but if Clinton were in office, Karl Rove would have the American public that Clinton had been visiting the troops in Afghanistan and had been playing around with an M-16 and had shot Tillman and had made everyone cover it up and.....

....and this would keep going and going and going....

This administration needs to start owning up to its mistakes.

 

I'm saying that everyone knows the truth now - and they have for three years. So why do the Democrats and the Tillmans keep talking about it, except to drive their own anti-war agenda?

 

No, the extent of the cover-up is still not fully clear. Do you know who all was involved in it? And then beyond that, the punishment and whether any federal laws were violated is also still needing to be investigated.

 

They're not christians or christian enough!!!! Don't forget, if you can't use the flag use the bible.

"His parents continue to ask for it to be looked at," Kauzlarich said. "And that is really their prerogative. And if they have the right backing, the right powerful people in our government to continue to let it happen, then that is the case.

"But there [have] been numerous unfortunate cases of fratricide, and the parents have basically said, 'OK, it was an unfortunate accident.' And they let it go. So this is — I don't know, these people have a hard time letting it go. It may be because of their religious beliefs."

In a transcript of his interview with Brig. Gen. Gary Jones during a November 2004 investigation, Kauzlarich said he'd learned Kevin Tillman, Pat's brother and fellow Army Ranger who was a part of the battle the night Pat Tillman died, objected to the presence of a chaplain and the saying of prayers during a repatriation ceremony in Germany before his brother's body was returned to the United States.

Kauzlarich, now a battalion commanding officer at Fort Riley in Kansas, further suggested the Tillman family's unhappiness with the findings of past investigations might be because of the absence of a Christian faith in their lives.

In an interview with ESPN.com, Kauzlarich said: "When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more — that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don't know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough."

Asked by ESPN.com whether the Tillmans' religious beliefs are a factor in the ongoing investigation, Kauzlarich said, "I think so. There is not a whole lot of trust in the system or faith in the system [by the Tillmans]. So that is my personal opinion, knowing what I know."

Asked what might finally placate the family, Kauzlarich said, "You know what? I don't think anything will make them happy, quite honestly. I don't know. Maybe they want to see somebody's head on a platter. But will that really make them happy? No, because they can't bring their son back."

Kauzlarich, now 40, was the Ranger regiment executive officer in Afghanistan, who played a role in writing the recommendation for Tillman's posthumous Silver Star. And finally, with his fingerprints already all over many of the hot-button issues, including the question of who ordered the platoon to be split as it dragged a disabled Humvee through the mountains, Kauzlarich conducted the first official Army investigation into Tillman's death.

This is only part of the whole article.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=tillmanpart1

 

What cover-up? The official Army report, which came out several weeks after his death, indicated that he died from friendly fire. If this were any other soldier, the story would have been dead long ago - it only has life because of political opportunism.

 

Reason 234,928 why I'm not a Christain.