Pat Tillman, More Than A Hero

Pat Tillman was more than a football player, more than the vaunted war hero.  We should all know his story by now, the pro football player who walked away from a multi-million dollar contract to join the military and fight terrorism abroad.  And then there's the story of how he bravely died in battle, and then the story of how he was actually killed by "friendly" fire.

Pat was a hometown guy, and his high school was one of our rivals.  Despite our displeasure with the Commander in Chief, we had enormous respect for someone who would put their country ahead of personal ambitions.  We certainly weren't alone, his sacrifice was quickly canonized by a country who could at least unite in celebrating the best of us.

Turns out Pat was even more complex than we knew, and because of that his sainthood may now be called into question.  The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that, amongst his many passions, Pat Tillman was a fan of Noam Chomsky and not a fan of the Iraq War. 

This may seem heretical to many, but it seems rather consistent for someone from our neck of the woods.  Silicon Valley is hardly a raging cauldron of leftism, but there are reasons why Pat's alma matter Leland High School is a shining jewel in the California school system.  Complexity and depth are, above all, Silicon Valley values.

Undoubtedly this new revelation will alter the course of the Pat Tillman legacy.  Will  Ann Coulter now revise her passionate ode to Pat's death when she learns that she actually would have hated him in life?  How will the massive spin machine react to this bombshell:

Mary Tillman said a friend of Pat’s even arranged a private meeting with Chomsky, the antiwar author, to take place after his return from Afghanistan — a meeting prevented by his death. She said  that although he supported the Afghan war, believing it justified by the Sept. 11  attacks, “Pat was very critical of the whole Iraq war.”

Not only did we lose a powerful friend in the war on terrorism, we lost a possible ally in the mending of our country.

At Pat's funeral his brother gave a good indication that Tillman was not the simple warrior cliche so many wanted him to be:

"Pat isn't with God,'' he said. "He's fucking dead. He wasn't religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he's fucking dead.''

Undoubtedly there will be those who suggest that Tillman's death was neither accidental nor friendly, that the Bush administration snuffed a potential Cindy Sheehan; but that would be an absurd charge.  If anything, Republicans are historically inept in their illegalities and clumsy in their execution.  They are neither that bright, nor that capable.  Republicans are only competent to assassinate character, and Pat Tillman's legacy could well be their next target.

To counter-phrase Ann Coulter, and to praise our Silicon brother:  There is not another region of the country--certainly nowhere in red state America--that could have produced a Pat Tillman.