Battles off the field...

Anyway, on a far more important note, an interesting story on Pat Tillman came out today. There have been a lot of mixed articles written about Tillman, the positive saying he is an American hero for leaving millions of dollars behind to fight for his country, the negative arguing that he was blinded by nationalism (sometimes using harsher words than that). The notorious article by Rene Gonzalez was one of the more harsh criticisms of Tillman. To his credit, by not only going against the popular public view of Tillman's decision and death, but also by doing so in such a blatantly disrespectful way, Gonzalez was able to attract a large reader base and use the article as a platform to denounce America's role in the war. But, I guess he did write, "One must indeed stand in awe of the amazing success of the American propaganda machine. It works wonders." However, most readers were so tired or angered of watching Gonzalez use words to shit all over the tragically shortened life of a young American soldier--a man he had never met, talked to or even seen--that they missed any value the article did have to offer. And there was some: whether correct or not, I feel the last paragraph of the article offers some important points.

That said, Gonzalez neglects a very important issue. The writer assumes Tillman "was acting out his macho, patriotic crap." Unlike Gonzalez, who writes that Tillman "wasn't defending me, nor was he defending the Afghani people", many Americans, and probably Tillman himself, have the "absurd" belief that he was defending America, the American people and everyone that is in threat of terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda. While the author writes "it wasn't like he was defending the East coast from an invasion of a foreign power," with Sept. 11 only two and half years removed, I feel that is almost exactly what he was doing.

While I do agree with Gonzalez in that "through careful and logical changing of the underlying conditions that allow for the ideology to foster will Al-Qaeda be defeated", I also understand that that will be a long and difficult process. In the meantime, we must do whatever we can to disrupt and prevent organizations such as Al-Qaeda from repeating terrorist attacks such as Sept. 11.

Regardless of one's view on the war and our role in it, I don't feel anyone can deny Pat Tillman's hero status. A hero is defined as "a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life: soldiers and nurses who were heroes in an unpopular war." Even if one questions Tillman's "nobility of purpose" (by arguing against the honor of fighting in this war, and by defining noble as above what's dishonorable), there is no doubt of Tillman's courage.

Either way, I think I'll be leaving Tillman's picture up on my wall.