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Inspired by Pat Tillman? |
Current rating: 3 |
by Mickey Z.
(No verified email address) |
24 Apr 2004
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"So, we can't see returning U.S. dead, but we can hear about dead 'heroes' who turned down lucrative football contracts to go kill people in Iraq. Hmmm. What's wrong with this picture?" |
— Journalist Preston Peet
Here's how the New York Times described Pat Tillman: "A graduate of Arizona State University, Tillman, a safety, played for four seasons with the Arizona Cardinals. But as an unrestricted free agent in 2002, he turned down a three-year, $3.6 million contract offer from the Cardinals and enlisted in the Army."
Thus, when Tillman was recently killed in action in Afghanistan, the predictable platitudes followed.
Defensive tackle Corey Sears of the Houston Texans, who played with Tillman on the Cardinals from 1999 to 2000, said: "All the guys that complain about it being too hot or they don't have enough money, that's not real life. A real life thing is he died for what he believed in."
I wonder if Sears views Iraqis dying for what they believe in to be "a real life thing" or is that reserved exclusively for Americans? You know, if Tillman were still alive, I'd like to ask him what exactly it was that he "believed in" enough to die for. Was it, say, for-profit health care for the few or pre-emptive wars or corporate welfare or maybe the death penalty? How about strip malls, SUVs, or cell phones? Maybe it was the right to vote for the next "American Idol"? I'd just like some clarification.
Former Cardinals head coach Dave McGinnis said Tillman who "represented all that was good in sports — proudly walked away from a career in football to a greater calling."
Greater calling: An ex-NFL player ruthlessly hunting CIA-created Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in a misguided, myopic attempt to avenge 9/11.
"Pat Tillman personified all the best values of his country and the NFL," said commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
What values are you talking about, Mr. Tagliabue? The values canonized in our history texts or the values of militarism and greed this nation has lived by for over 200 years? Did Tagliabue or Tillman ever read, say, Zinn's "People's History" or Blum's "Killing Hope"? Were those the values we all should aspire to personify if we wanna be known as a hero? Can someone do me a favor and list the "best values" of both America and the NFL?
"Where do we get such men as these? Where to we find these people willing to stand up for America?" asked Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Arizona.
Which America was Tillman standing up for ... the bosses at Halliburton or the homeless guy I see every day on the subway steps? Do you know anyone who needed Tillman to "stand up" for them by bringing indiscriminate death and destruction to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan? Are we so numb to the clichés that we'll let them pass without comment or contemplation?
More Rep. Hayworth: "He chose action rather than words. He just wanted to serve his country."
Again, what country was he serving? The country personified by war criminals like Bush and Kerry? The country defined by corporate pirates? Indeed, Tillman wasn't serving the 2 million behind bars or the 2 million locked in nursing homes against their will. The action he chose over words didn't make our air or water cleaner or stop the suburban sprawl. Tillman could have chosen to serve his country by challenging the corporate-mandated status quo ... but that's not how things work around here, it is?
Even more Hayworth: "He was a remarkable person. He lived the American dream, and he fought to preserve the American dream and our way of life."
What American dream? The dreams of Wal-Mart, Nike, and The Gap? Whose way of life ... Wall Street speculators, professional athletes, and digitally- or surgically-enhanced celebrities? I certainly didn't ask him to kill anyone and he sure wasn't protecting anything I hold dear. Pat Tillman, to me, seemed like a pre-programmed American male ... the spawn of decades of corporate conditioning and state-sponsored patriotism.
Tillman walking away from millions to "fight for his country" does not impress me — but I am awed by the ability to manipulate humans into consistently acting against their interests and the interests of the entire planet.
"People often are conscripted into armies, but sometimes they enlist with gusto," explains Steven Pinker, director of the Center of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Jingoism," Pinker declares, "is alarmingly easy to evoke."
"War itself is venal, dirty, confusing and perhaps the most potent narcotic invented by humankind," says New York Times columnist Chris Hedges. "It allows us to suspend individual conscience, maybe even consciousness, for the cause. And few of us are immune. ... The contagion of war, of the siren call of the nation, is so strong that most cannot resist."
But resist we must ... and unless we in America create powerful — and urgent — ways to resist, we cannot expect the victims of our indifference and ineptitude to not hold each of us accountable. As Ward Churchill explains, it's not acceptable or realistic to believe that the "brown-skinned folks dying in the millions in order to maintain this way of life ... can wait forever for those who purport to be the opposition here to find some personally comfortable and pure manner of affecting the kind of transformation that brings not just lethal but genocidal processes to a halt."
Churchill warns ominously that the brown-skinned folks dying in the millions "have no obligation — moral, ethical, legal or otherwise — to sit on their thumbs while the opposition here dithers about doing anything to change the system."
In other words, the world doesn't need any more "heroes" like Pat Tillman. It needs the American people to snap out of their propaganda-induced fog ASAP and seek a "greater calling" in the truest sense.
(Postscript: As Preston Peet noted above, we will surely see Pat Tillman's flag-draped coffin on TV and in print and website photos. This will be done solely for propaganda reasons. The other dead soldiers (and their victims) will remain hidden ... if the Pentagon has its way. The indefatigable Russ Kick triggered a firestorm by publishing photos of coffins arriving from Iraq on The Memory Hole while the corporate media feigned ignorance that such photos even existed. "We were not aware at all that these photos were being taken," said Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times. John Banner, the executive producer of ABC's "World News Tonight," said, "We did not file a F.O.I.A. request ourselves, because this was the first we had known that the military was shooting these pictures." Like the vast majority of Americans, the corporate media is quite adept at feigning ignorance.)
Mickey Z. is the author of two upcoming books: "A Gigantic Mistake: Articles and Essays for Your Intellectual Self-Defense" (Prime Books/Library Empyreal) and "The Seven Deadly Spins: Exposing the Lies Behind War Propaganda" (Common Courage Press). He can be reached at mzx2 (at) earthlink.net. |
This work is in the public domain |
Comments
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Re: Pat Tillman is gone good ridance |
by chuck
chuck (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 18
25 Apr 2004
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No Mickey, he died so that morons like you can continue to enjoy the freedoms you seem to take for granted. Luckily, most rational people don't subscribe to the same twisted thinking that you do, so men and women like Pat Tillman don't die in vain. You sicken me and hopefully you sicken the rest of the human population, of which you don't seem to be a part of. |
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Re: Pat Tillman is gone good ridance |
by Jack Ryan
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 16
25 Apr 2004
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First off, Bravo Chuck.
I wish I could say the the diluted and bitter Mickey Z. is an anomoly on this site, however, this is not true.
Pat Tillman was a successful and rich athelete. They hate that. He gave it all up to repay the country which gave him nothing but opportunity.
He died for his country and they not only don't appreciate the ultimate sacrifice, but simply do not understand why anyone would.
In fact, they cheer his and every death and actually root for the enemy to win in virually any and all conflicts this country finds itself in.
They do not realize that leftists died in the 9-11 tragedy as well. I wonder under what circumstances they themselves would pick up a weapon and defend themselves.
The cowardly who afraid to fight will always mock those that do.
Jack |
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This is not my title or edited article |
by Mickey Z.
mzx2 (nospam) earthlink.net (unverified) |
Current rating: 8
27 Apr 2004
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FYI: Someone posted an early version of an article of mine. It's since been edited and can be found all over the web, i.e. Counterpunch. As for the title, not only do I know how to spell, but I would never have used such a title.
Be careful what you find on the Web... |
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Re: Pat Tillman is gone good ridance |
by Joe Doaks
hillstreetblue95 (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: -3
27 Apr 2004
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This tome sums up all the fringe wacko liberal Democratic conspiracy theories.
Mickey Z is nothing if not stupid. So let me address this idiots claims.
He wants to know about CIA created Taliban.
The CIA did not create the Taliban even a moron can read a historyof what occurred in Afghanistan will tell you that the Taliban was born in the refugee camps. Refugees created by the Soviets. Like many others they fought the Soviets -your heroes- Mickey Z.
So the CIA did not create them you fucking nitwit.
Next for profit health care? Wow terrible thing to have a healthcare system that Canadians come to use because their socialist system does not take care of them yo udumb jerk-off
Brown skinned folks? You commies didn't seem to be worried about the Vietnamese who were slaughtered by the thousands by your Viet Cong heroes. Same with the Cambodians who were slaughtered inthe millions by your commie brethren
Funny we tried to protect those brown skinned people -despite you liberalDemocratic Commies.
Howard Zinn? He is just as stupid and ignorant as you are. |
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Re: Pat Tillman is gone good ridance |
by Tracy McLellan
mclellantracy (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 9
27 Apr 2004
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This is unfair to headline this article this way because it is a comment I appended to the article upon one of its first printings at pressaction.com This unfairly colors Mickey's meaning. |
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Re: Pat Tillman is gone good ridance |
by Alex
zander (nospam) donsmuffler.com (unverified) |
Current rating: -4
27 Apr 2004
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It is because of people like Mickey Z that I will NEVER again pick up a weapon to defend the people of this country. |
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Re: Pat Tillman is gone good ridance |
by chuck
chuck (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 3
27 Apr 2004
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Thanks for clearing things up with the title Mick, that doesn't change the fact that what you blabber about underneath the title is still crap. |
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Re: Pat Tillman is gone good ridance |
by A
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: -2
27 Apr 2004
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Mickey Z:
Interesting that you can't put your money were your mouth is. He died to protect you, and your rights to cry like the piece of crap you are. |
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Author's Title Restored |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 12
27 Apr 2004
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Given that the author has complained that someone has altered the title and that we strongly suspect this was done with the intention of using the author's work as troll bait, rather than as information, I have restored the title of the article to that originally intended.
Now we can only hope that the troll-on-troll nastiness will subside and that everyone can consider the author's original intent before spewing more misdirected hate. |
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Re: Inspired by Pat Tillman? |
by chuck
chuck (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: -4
27 Apr 2004
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So calling out a misguided imbecile who trivializes a soldiers death is considered trolling? Curious. What is the name around here for what you do then? |
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Re: Inspired by Pat Tillman? |
by Tracy McLellan
tracymacl (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 20
27 Apr 2004
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Are these college students making most of these comments? How could anyone come to the delusion that a soldier dying, or fighting for that matter, could possibly make someone, let alone us here in the United States, free somehow? Do we, putting it politely, know nothing of historical US foreign policy? Let me ask you sanguine patriots out there. Did any of the 58,000 US dead in Vietnam make you an iota more free? What about the hundreds of thousands more wounded? I won't even ask about the 4 million Indochinese dead and millions more wounded, nor mention the chemical warfare of Agent Orange. Remember chemical warfare is despicable. Unless done by the United States. And nuculer weapons are bad, real bad; for Iran and North Korea. Well, actually, North Korea is OK. But US nuclear weapons? Why they're as fitting and proper as blue on sky. |
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Re: Bye . . . and good riddance |
by 5
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 20
28 Apr 2004
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Why that sooo original Augusta. Perhaps all the Republicans should leave the state rather than criticize the Dems since Dems control the decisions in the Illinios executive and legislative branch. Villifying the "others" you don't agree with and advocating their departure makes your arguments in other aspects suspect. |
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Bye . . . and good riddance |
by augusta
augusta (nospam) tefteller.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
28 Apr 2004
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To 5 (no name?) Huh??? Those with your mindset started the whole good riddance thing referring to Pat Tillman. What disrespect to someone who just died to keep you free. I was just extrapolating from there with my draft comment. Sorry, but your response was pretty bad! You could have done better than that! Boo . . . and good riddance! |
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Re: Inspired by Pat Tillman? |
by Endymion97
Endymion97 (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
28 Apr 2004
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You Wrote:
Did Tagliabue or Tillman ever read, say, Zinn's "People's History" or Blum's "Killing Hope"? Were those the values we all should aspire to personify if we wanna be known as a hero? Can someone do me a favor and list the "best values" of both America and the NFL?
Because, obviously, the U.S. is responsible for all that is evil and has been evil throughout the world for the last two hundred years. We should weep that a man would be willing to sacrifice a lucrative football contract to serve his country. What a horrible person Pat Tillman must have been. |
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Re: Inspired by Pat Tillman? |
by Tracy McLellan
tracymacl (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 12
28 Apr 2004
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I'd like to ask Augusta how a socialist, and I am one thank you very much, could find another country to live in if that is what they find so appealing? In every country that has tried a socialist experiment, has tried to prove an economic model outside the crass, violent, unsustainable capitalist one, the US military has set the military dogs loose to undermine it. When the first ever duly elected president of Iran, Mossadegh in 1953 nationalized a couple of oil companies that his destitute people could enjoy the benefits of the wealth of their own resources rather than western multinational corporations like Arco and Sunoco, the CIA assassinated him and installed the vicious shah to rule with vast repression until the revolution of 1979. Could this be why the people of Iran, why "they" hate us so? Nah. In 1954 when President Jacobo Arbenz nationalized some fallow land - you're a college student, you do know the meaning of fallow? - and decided to pay United Fruit the amount of money for the land that it had claimed it was worth for tax purposes, at the behest of United Fruit, Eisenhower had him assassinated. In 1973 when the duly elected and popular President Salvador Allende nationalized D'anconia Copper that his starving and destitute people could benefit from the wealth of their nation's resources, rather than fat capitalists in air-conditioned corporate boardrooms, the CIA assassinated him at the behest of Nixon and Kissinger, and installed in his stead Pinochet who also ruled "democratically" with an iron fist for three decades. See the US loves democracy. These are only the tip of the iceberg and are the rule rather than the anomaly in US foreign policy. May I suggest William Blum's Killing Hope or Noam Chomsky for furtehr elucidation?
I'd love to go to a socialist or a truly communist country and live a real life rather than a grasping greedy consuming unsustainable capitalist one. Only one problem. Anywhere the idea has so much has been considered the US military has swung the vicious imperial fist and squashed it in its infancy or sooner. A socialist government has NEVER been allowed to fail or succeed on its own merits. |
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Re: Inspired by Pat Tillman? |
by karl
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
28 Apr 2004
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really sick and twisted |
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Augusta: Rated Down |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 14
30 Apr 2004
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Ed,
Once again, the Right shoots off its mouth without having its fact straight. Augusta's post was rated down by users of the site, so it went to the Hidden Files, where you can still read it. So it has not been either deleted or censored. I'll believe "the Right has greater freedom of speech than the Left" when I see Fox Schnooze, WorldDreckDaily, or the GreedPers allowing people who disagree with them to directly comment on their articles, like Indymedia does. |
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Here's the Link |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 3
30 Apr 2004
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The link to the Hidden Articles is right on the mainpage. Here it is for those who are having trouble finding it:
http://www.ucimc.org/newswire/hidden/index.php |
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Re: Inspired by Pat Tillman? |
by Tracy McLellan
tracymacl (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 9
30 Apr 2004
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I want to go on record as saying there is a lot of freedom here in the US and a lot to be thankful for and in many ways I am lucky to be here.
I also want to go on record correcting an error of fact I made in my previous post. President Mossadegh was deposed and imprisoned by the CIA and the Shah, not assassinated.
Having said all that I want to point out to Augusta that it's not as simple as saying assassinating Allende, Arbenz, and deposing Mossadegh is wrong, oops. It needs to be understood that this is typical, not anomalous of US foreign policy. It is policies and acts such as these, Vietnam is only the most obvious of a very long and abhorrent list, that prompt events like 911. Until we understand, hold our government accountable, and exercise repentance pursuant to preventing future foreign policy debacles, we can expect more 911s. For a barometer of the progress we are making I would point to Iraq.
I would highly recommend William Blum's book "Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since WWII," in which he documents about 60 instances of US tyranny such as is mentioned above. |
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Re: Well mitch |
by Angie
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: -2
04 May 2004
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I live in Canada,
what have you to say on that front ? we have not seen the need to go to war at the drop of a hat and we seem to be alive and well. |
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Re: Inspired by Pat Tillman? |
by Paul
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
05 May 2004
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Any time you'd like to discuss the intangible values of duty, honor, or country - please feel free to look me up. These things that you take for granted while hiding behind your keyboard - others offer you.
What do you know about the Iraqi's dying for their cause - again, I'd be glad to offer you a lesson from first hand experience, but it requires you coming out from the comfortable hole you shout your ridiculous comments from. |
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Pat Tillman: The Rest of the Story |
by via Ted Rall
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
05 May 2004
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What the press hasn't told you |
See also:
http://www.ucomics.com/rallcom/
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Re: Inspired by Pat Tillman? |
by chuck
chuck (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: -2
06 May 2004
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I see that Mickey isn't the only gutless moron running around blabbing. I'd be willing to bet that if some goof got trampled during a protest against the Chief, s/he would be deemed a hero by the same jackasses printing these comics. |
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Re: Inspired by Pat Tillman? |
by Yeah Pat
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
17 May 2004
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i would like to say mickey Z and anyone that doesnt support tillman should get the hell out of america; he fought because he had morals and he fought for what he believed in; unlike your pussy-ass that sits back and enjoys the freedom that a hero like tillman gives you. as for the comic, tillman didnt claim to be a genius, he just fought for morals and descently; thankfully (or maybe not), there are people like him to allow you to sip on your espresso latte, write an article to hear themselves talk, and then go sit down for a drive in your SUV to get your clothes at the gap. All in time for you to get home to jerk off to American Idol. You are sick, sick people that should get out of the United States in search of some Utopia; hopefully one where you don't reproduce. Here is a great article on Pat Tillman http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article3384.html |
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