Pat Tillman killed by friendly fire.

[cgannon64]

Look at it this way - giving up an easy life to follow your beliefs come what may. I have no love for the militarism of the US's current leadership but I have nothing but respect for the Pat Tillmans of the world (or Greadius, onejayhawk, et al) - whether they were playing in the NFL or pumping gas. And whether they gave it up to join the military or canvass for Greenpeace. It is the sad state of western society that there are so few people who are willing to give up comfort to work for what they see as a better world. People would look at Patrick Henry as a lunatic these days.

Of course I have respect for the guy, but there are better ways to go than friendly fire.

 

[10Seven]

Soldier Worship can be a deliberate political tool for manipulation - the more esteem the soldier is held with, the greater crimes may be carried out in their name
- much like the ongoing abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo and other prisons under US control - as it was stated roughly by one and a number of US officials and upper eschelon military persons - they needed to be harder to save the lives of their soldiers and US citizens.

Unfortunately this now appears that the life of a US soldier is very much more valuable than that of any other - as not only Arab decent detainees have experienced.

And it is already past the point where a non-military US citizen is deemed of lesser right than the US soldier.

A society well immersed in soldier worship - as so many are - is by far easier to manipulate into conflict.

My definition: Soldier Worship is the phenomonen of the demand for and provision of respect for military personel based simply on their membership of those armed forces - this tending toward justification through repetition and association with past events and ongoing social engineering.

EDIT: Perhaps of interest - approx. 50% of US casualties have been due to accident and 'friendly fire' and allied forces are at least as likely to be killed by 'friendly fire' originating from US forces as killed by enemy forces and other events.

 

[FriendlyFire]

"The War was not so much accompainied by rhetoric as driven by rhetoric, Its vague yet potent terms gave people their sense of why they were fighting and what they were fighting for and why they should keep on fighting longer than they had originally anticipated." - The Road to Verdun Ian Ousby

(Verdun thats WWI 1916 for those who dont know)


_

 

[10Seven]

I think that's a good quote