Hero’s family can’t be unpatriotic

What do you suppose they’ll say about the war hero’s parents?

After all, those who defend the present administration against charges of misinformation and misdirection have never been above a little character assassination where its critics are concerned. Their favorite tactic is to shout down dissent by yelling “Unpatriotic!” whenever it rears its head.

So what will they say about the war hero’s folks?

Surely they’ll have to say something. In interviews with the Washington Post published this week, Mary Tillman and Patrick Tillman Sr., parents of slain Army Ranger Pat Tillman, blasted the Army for “lying” about their son’s death. The younger Tillman, you will recall, was the Arizona Cardinals football player who, after Sept. 11, famously turned his back on a $3.6 million contract in order to join the military.

When he was killed in a firefight in Afghanistan last year, Tillman was made a human recruiting poster, an icon of selfless patriotism who supposedly died while shouting orders and exhorting his men to take the fight to the enemy. The Post reported in December that the Army knew, but did not tell his family or the nation until weeks later, that this version of the story was … incomplete. The fact is, investigators determined fairly quickly that Tillman died of so-called “friendly fire”; he was accidentally killed by another squad of Army Rangers and died yelling, “Cease fire! Friendlies!”

“The military let him down,” Mary Tillman told the Post. “The administration let him down. It was a sign of disrespect. The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting.”

“After it happened, all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this,” Tillman’s father said. “They purposely interfered with the investigation. They covered it up. I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out. They blew up their poster boy.”

The Army has acknowledged and apologized for its “mistakes,” and there you might let the matter rest except that there’s a pattern here, and we are remiss if we don’t say that. Because how many times in the last four years have we seen this happen? How many times have we seen facts shaded, bent, disregarded and discarded in order to create the “reality” that best serves the aims of various government offices, the military and the White House? How many scientific reports rewritten? How much intelligence ignored? How many dangers exaggerated?

Remember Jessica Lynch? When she was captured in an Iraqi ambush in 2003, the Army depicted her as a tiny blond Rambo. Only later did we learn that it was a fairytale.

But it made for a good story, didn’t it? And in the current scheme of things, one never lets facts get in the way of a good story. More to the point, one never questions the great and powerful Bush.

Still, there’s a difference between the Tillman tall tale and many of the others we’ve been told over the years. In this one, somebody died. And that ought to mean something. Something more than a recruiting opportunity, I mean.

So what will be said of Patrick and Mary Tillman after their outburst this week? Will they be called “unpatriotic,” too? Or will that slur, finally and at long last, shame even the most ardent defenders of the misinformation age?

Surely, even they must realize that you shouldn’t spin death. Indeed, you shouldn’t even try.