Posted on 08/13/2010 1:28:11 PM PDT by woofie
An R-rated letter from Pat Tillman's father to a general and a battle over an R-rating are among the controversies brewing in anticipation of the Aug. 20 release of "The Tillman Story."
The documentary is based on the death of the Arizona Cardinals safety turned Army Ranger, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.
Last week, Mary Tillman, Pat Tillman's mother, wrote a commentary for the Los Angeles Times, speaking out about Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, her son's death, fallen soldiers and President Barack Obama. Among other things, she emphasizes that the government should have looked into McChrystal's record a year ago and that her son is not who everyone thinks or says he is. She wrote: "Pat is not more important or special than any of the others who have fought in these wars, but the truth of what happened to Pat -- and to every soldier who has died -- is important. The truth shines a light on systematic corruption, incompetence and lack of accountability in the military and in government." The Weinstein Co., which is releasing the film, also gave The Huffington Post two letters by Tillman's father that hadn't been publicly released. They were written during the investigation into Tillman's death. The letters were addressed to Brig. Gen. Gary M. Jones (who was in charge of the investigation) and the Senate Armed Services Committee. In a nutshell, Tillman's father said, "F--- you ... and yours."
Thursday, The company lost an appeal to lower the R rating the Classification and Rating Administration gave. CARA, an organization under the Motion Picture Association of America, said the R rating still stands due to "language."
(Excerpt) Read more at aolnews.com ...
Each is an individual tragedy, as are all American combat deaths, not a scandal and our scandal-obsessed media is committing a journalistic atrocity by acting as though this one is.
I believe that Pat’s death was a tragic accident. I am curious that we have never heard from his brother who, I believe, was there at the time.
...the Tillman family needs to bear their grief away in private...it’s sad that Pat died the way that he did, but the Army is inherently a dangerous calling...every year men die in combat, die from accidents, die from illness and die from misfortune...their son decided to volunteer for a particularly high risk MOS...I don’t think that the family really understood the risks that he was accepting as a triple volunteer...Army/Airborne/Ranger.
If this movie is anything like the book it would be painful to watch.
Accidental death by friendly fire is a part of war. But I am afraid the worse part of this war is that like Vietnam and in some cases Korea a lot of our men and women are directly killed because of political intervention.
They’ll blame it all on Bush and Rumsfeld.
Thanks. Saves me from reading the book or watching the movie. then.
.I don’t think that the family really understood the risks that he was accepting as a triple volunteer...Army/Airborne/Ranger. ....................................... BINGO! However the FF incident should not have been hidden. It looked like we needed a hero story at the time and the press picked it up as one. I was in a hospital bed when it hit CNN, emotionally it upset me a great deal, and the drugs they had in me made it more unbearable.
Of course.
Lying by a General Officer about the circumstances surrounding the death of one of his soldiers is the scandal here. McChrystal signed a Silver Star citation for Tillman that stated he was killed by hostile fire. He knew that was not true when he signed it, and he participated in the cover up of the truth. McChrystal should have been cashiered on the spot. That he was not is beyond scandalous.
Friendly fire deaths have always been a part of war. The problem here was the cover-up by the military. They should have acknowledged the truth from the beginning.
Tillman’s family dishonors him. Tillman wasn’t drafted - he knew what he was volunteering for. That’s part of what makes him such a hero. Not only did he volunteer for the Army, but he went infantry and THEN went Ranger, which requires an even further level of volunteering. By crying about his death now, his family acts as if Tillman was some misguided child who didn’t know what he was getting into.
ARE WE sure that was the way it happened, timing of signing the Citation and everything.
and if it was not the truth, did they move ahead because of the family and they were not clear on exactly what happened..., and then it was later when it all sorted out?
The left/ press made it look like the coverup was produced by Rumsfeld and Bush.
If a cover up happened I think it was probably lower level . Because he was a football star and volunteered the press wanted a story . Whoever put the story out probably did not want it to look bad ....it was no more than that
Scandal Obsessed media is not. You will bearly hear about this in MSM, a passing comment here and there.
PT’s parents want asnwers and they deserve them.
How can we know it was an accidental death unless they get all the answers.
If people have nothing to hide, then no one should be afraid of this little documentary. They should just set them straight.
Believing the general intended to cover-up for any other reason than to prevent additional pain to the family or the blow to public morale that the death of who many consider a hero would be is to imply that Tillman’s death by friendly fire itself was scandalous.
this situation is tragic all the way around.
However, as for the family, all bets are off as to their ‘rationally understanding the risks, etc...”. From a distance we can say that.
But grief does strange things, and “making sense” is not one of the ‘stages of grief.” I would blame the media for making such a circus out of this and also manipulating the Tillman family’s grief to the max. But I would not judge the Tillman family. They are hurt, angry and in terrible grief and just when they would want to grieve in private, the media stokes it all up again. I can not imagine anything worse.
I don’t think the family “dishonors” Tillman. Nothing can dishonor his service to his country.
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