LEFT-WING SOLDIER
Pat Tillman, Our Hero

From the Nation:

The very private Tillmans have revealed a picture of Pat profoundly at odds with the GI Joe image created by Pentagon spinmeisters and their media stenographers. As the Chronicle put it, family and friends are now unveiling "a side of Pat Tillman not widely known--a fiercely independent thinker who enlisted, fought and died in service to his country yet was critical of President Bush and opposed the war in Iraq, where he served a tour of duty. He was an avid reader whose interests ranged from history books...to works of leftist Noam Chomsky, a favorite author." Tillman had very unembedded feelings about the Iraq War. His close friend Army Spec. Russell Baer remembered, "I can see it like a movie screen. We were outside of [an Iraqi city] watching as bombs were dropping on the town.... We were talking. And Pat said, 'You know, this war is so f***ing illegal.' And we all said, 'Yeah.' That's who he was. He totally was against Bush." With these revelations, Pat Tillman the PR icon joins WMD and Al Qaeda connections on the heap of lies used to sell the Iraq War.

Tillman's transition from one-dimensional caricature to critically thinking human being is a long time coming. The fact is that in death he was far more useful to the armchair warriors than he had ever been in life. When the Pro Bowler joined the Army Rangers, the Pentagon brass needed a loofah to wipe their drool: He was white, handsome and played in the NFL. For a chicken-hawk Administration led by a President who loves the affectations of machismo but runs from protesting military moms, this testosterone cocktail was impossible to resist. The problem was that Tillman wouldn't play their game. To the Pentagon's chagrin, he turned down numerous offers to be its recruitment poster child.

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This is a very pleasant surprise. I like to think I'm an open-minded individual, but this news about Tillman reminds me how I easily fall into thinking about people in terms of stereotypes. That is, learning about the fallen NFL star and Army Ranger's leftward leanings has shown me how I tend to think that people attracted to military service are generally conservative. Actually, that's kind of the conventional wisdom, but it certainly doesn't apply to every individual who puts on a uniform to serve their country. Really, in this one respect, it's not surprising at all: Tillman, shocked and horrified by 9/11, gave up a lucrative career as a football player in order to help defend his country; he was obviously an idealist. Now that's a war hero I can really get behind and support.

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