Comments on: Pat Tillman & Jessica Lynch: The cover-up

By: SEAL

SEAL — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

As a former military officer with years of combat experience I have very strong feelings for the family of Pat Tillman. They did not deserve this. But the actions of the officers both in the field and out only point out how politically involved our military has become. That’s wrong. The military has always had its own internal politics but never was it involved with the national political scene except at the very highest level, The Joint Chiefs.

I, or anyone who has been there and done that, will tell you that soldiers are killed or injured by “friendly fire” in combat quite frequently. There was never a policy that I knew of but the accepted practice was to report those deaths as KIA, killed in action, and that was all that was stated about it on the record. Normally, no one above the unit commanders knew any different. If that had been done in Tillmans case there would probably never have been a problem.

It is frightening to me to think that our military is now fighting for political regimes instead of the American people. That means they are no longer defending America, they have become the enforcement arm of the political regime in power. That is a dictatorship. Rule by force. Calling it a “preemtive war” does not change the fact.

The army’s botched attempt to use Tillman’s death for political milage has caused heartbreak for his family and abused them unmercifully. Those responsible should be punished. However, that will not happen. The responsibility goes all the way to the commander in chief. Only a few officers will be punished and those punishments will never be adequate to offset to pain and suffering of the family.

By: Jenifer D.

Jenifer D. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

As much as I have read about this remarkable young man, his family should have been given more consideration. However, since Ranger Tillman was such a high-profile soldier, the political damage avoided was probably worth all the lies, deceit, attempts to obstruct justice, family suffering, and hinderance of an investigation by willful and intentional destruction of evidence; Bio-hazard or not, it was still evidence. Isn’t it illegal to order subordinates to disturb a crime scene (burning of uniform and body armor) or commit acts that go against their military training (AKA: Army Values)?

By: WWLBadger

WWLBadger — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

As a former Army ADA (Air Defense Artillery) serviceman, I’m more familiar than most with concept of fratricide. Once our birds accept lock and fly, don’t be a pilot who accidentally mis-set his id box. But that is also a risk we all took when we accepted the honor of wearing the uniform. For a government to willfully manufacture evidence or stories about the death of a serviceman or woman is unconscionable. Both the service and their families deserve the truth.

By: CintraWIlson

CintraWIlson — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I was at the DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005, interviewing the director, Tony Tether.

Apparently, the $2M of DARPA’s $3.2B budget used to create the autonomous robot car challenge was secured when Tether passionately insisted, to Congress, that if robots had been driving the supply vehicle that Jessica Lynch had been in, the whole terrible Jessica Lynch thing never would have happened.

Jessica Lynch + propaganda + emotional weepy power + Congress
= DARPA millions in funding for war-toy robots of dubious value.

Ah, DARPA, that old skunk-works. Still retroactively fixing the cold war with their erector sets, and saving fair damsels in hindsite distress.

The DREGULATOR
http://www.cintrawilson.com

By: marinevet

marinevet — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

the problem with lies and coverups are they hide the reality of malfunctions in tactics weapons and leadership on the battlefield… read the jessica lynch story again and you find that a key part of the real story was… her M-16 was inoperable due to malfunction induced by accumulated dirt and sand… THIS HAS BEEN A CHRONIC PROBLEM WITH THE M-16 SINCE IT WAS INTRODUCED!… Now consider the fact that 11 other GIs died in the same ambush… anyone who knows about ambushes understands that the first and foremeost response of those ambushed must be returning a high volume of accurate fire so as to attain “Fire Superiority”… Fire Superiority is what keeps the enemy from approaching and executing/capturing those caught in the “killing zone” … This obviously did not occur in the ambush Lynch was involved in… The enemy maintained fire superiority… we know at least Lynch had a weapon malfunction… that is one weapon which did not return fire, unfortunately, this is not an unusual experience with this weapon ….. the M-16 must be kept meticulously clean to function properly, If one weapon was degraded due to dust and sand chances are good that other weapons in the unit also failed to operate properly… when malfunctions occur Gis have to manually eject spent rounds and manually chamber a new round, seat and lock the bolt on each round chambered all the while taking heavy fire from an enemy equipped with the reliable automatic AK 47 … the difference in fire put out and received in this case can easily be on the order of twenty or thirty rounds of incoming to one outgoing… or in worst case… 20 or 30 rounds of incoming to 0 rounds outgoing… Unable to achieve fire superiority the enemy no doubt was able to advance under covering fire until they could place the muzzles of their reliable AK 47s into the cab of each vehicle and shoot each US GI armed with malfunction prone unreliable M-16s they encountered… and for the military flaks who will respond saying jamming of the M-16 was a Viet Nam War problem but is not a problem in Iraq… i can assure you Jessica lynch was not the only GI who had malfunctioning M-16 problems…

I remember watching a television imbed film of marines in iraq during the same timeframe as the jessica Lynch ambush… the newsvideo showed a marine squad moving across a courtyard in assault formation… firing their weapons as they moved… one of the marines was clearing rounds out of his m-16, one at a time, manually chambering the next round, seating and locking the bolt, falling behind his fellow marines, leaving himself exposed in the open to enemy fire and leaving a hole in the assault line…

By: Steve Horn

Steve Horn — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ahh Tillman – I don’t mean any disrespect to his family or his memory – but if he hadn’t been a football star would anyone really give a shit?
Are we impressed that he was a Ranger (I’ve gone through the training – it ain’t easy folks) or by the fact that he turned down a multimillion dollar contract in order to serve?
What about the 3200+ other men and women (many of whom also made it through serious, some would say harsh, training in advance of leaving for their assignments) – many of whom interrupted their careers as well in the wake of 9/11, or felt a sense of duty to their nation and joined the military before that fateful day – who have perished in these two useless “wars” – started by our commander in chief – why are there no calls for investigations into their deaths?
Oh – I know – they were just regular people – citizens – not multi-million dollar football stars.

By: TRUTH 101

TRUTH 101 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

STEVE

You make a great point….and you are correct but here is the real point that ALL should be keenly aware of …AND NOBODY SEEMS TO BE but the posters here.

GWB has yet to attend ONE…JUST ONE funeral of any of the 3200+ dead soldiers fighting the War for OIL or CONTROL of the world through OIL

We need to stop all the talk and analysis and have the media and CONGRESS start to call it like it really is. NOT JUST KUCINICH but all 535 members of Congressional House and Senate and see it for what it really is

The Bible to the BUSH crowd is “just a GD Book” much like the CONSTITUTION is “Just a GD piece of paper”

These Criminals need to be Charged, tried, found guilty and let the punishment fit the crime in WARTIME:

That is why nothing is being done i think as the penalty for Treason in wartime is DEATH: is it not? There’s your answer as to why nobody wants to be the first to bring it up !!!

By: Steve Horn

Steve Horn — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

As a young officer in the ANG GW took an oath to uphold and defend the constitution of the United States – he did not honor that oath.
As President of the United States, GW once again took an oath to uphold and defend the constitution of the United States (TWICE!) – yet he tramples on that document like it was a bit of trash blowing down Pennsylvania Ave (or a dirt road outside of Crawford Texas) –

I belive the Vice President takes an oath as well, although it’s not specified within the constitution, since 1884 it’s been the following:

“I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

Obviously this oath didn’t mean much to Cheney either –

a Traitor is commonly defined as A person who betrays the nation of their citizenship and/or reneges on an oath of loyalty – note that this is not treason as limited by the consitution – which is more restrictive – the individual must be trying to aid an enemy or bring down the government – so the charges may or may not stick (it’s pretty subjective as to what the ultimate motives of the current administration may have been / are) – but to see that corpulent bastard in handcuffs …. zowie!

By: Boots

Boots — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I knew about the Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman lies for years. Now they are having a congressional hearing? What took them so long? Are they all braindead? The Pentagon is pussywhipped. The Bushies are going through generals like peanuts. The White House doesn’t know which way is up and the media is interested more in Don Imus, Rosie O’Donnell etc. etc.. I hear Peter Pace say that he works at the pleasure of the president. I thought he took an oath to protect and uphold the constitution of the USA, first and foremost? He also has to follow the (legal) orders of the CIC, but kissing his butt is purely optional. Jr. Bush has turned this country into a tinderbox. And if there is anyone who still supports his regime they should all be wrapped in a straitjacket and shipped off to the cookie factory.

I say,Impeach Bush and Cheney, and do it now!!!

By: Doubtom

Doubtom — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

To my knowledge that phrase is absent from the oath of office for the President and it may well be for the Vice-President also.