Pat Tillman's mother on Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal: I told you so

[unhappycamper]

Pat Tillman's mother on Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal: I told you so
By Mary Tillman
August 8, 2010

Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal was forced to retire because of remarks he made to a Rolling Stone reporter. Having read the article that led to his departure, I feel strangely validated. "The Runaway General" described by journalist Michael Hastings is exactly the arrogant individual I believed him to be.

McChrystal was in charge of Joint Special Operations Command in 2004, when my son, Pat, was killed in Afghanistan. But I didn't become aware of him until March 2007. That's when someone anonymously sent an Associated Press reporter a copy of a high-priority correspondence. The memo was written on April 29, 2004, by McChrystal and sent to Gen. John P. Abizaid, Gen. Bryan Douglas Brown and Lt. Gen. Philip R. Kensinger Jr. Its purpose was to warn President George W. Bush and other officials to avoid making public comments about Pat's heroic death at the hands of the enemy, because it was beginning to seem "highly possible that Corporal Tillman was killed by friendly fire."

The memo went on to caution against "unknowing statements by our country's leaders which might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Corporal Tillman's death become public."

We knew nothing about this memo at the time it was written. In fact, we did not learn until weeks after Pat's memorial service that it was even possible he was killed by friendly fire.

[aquart]

1. Mrs. Tillman was right.

[SpiralHawk]

2. The Republicons used her honorable son in a shameful way

And McChrystal was one of the Republicon cronies, along with George AWOL Bush and Dick 'Five-Military-Deferments' Cheney -- another shameful incident for Republicons as they once again attempted to deceive America.

[gratuitous]

3. "Might cause public embarrassment"

McChrystal is just another cog in the machine that's more concerned with appearance than substance. Hand your sons and daughters over to that machine at your own peril, America. They are not "building character" or any of the other four-color glossy stuff in the recruiting brochures.

And, a word to our friends monitoring the site: The circumstances always become public. Every time. Without fail. Your greatest enemy and the public's most potent weapon is the truth, which is why truth is always the first casualty of war.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Why hasn't someone pursued finding the perps? Just because it

was a nice friendly group of bullets that pierced his skull... why no whodunnit in these situations??

[rhett o rick]

5. Mr. Tillman was killed by the Bush Admin and Pres Obama is willing to look the other way. nm