Another work which chronicles the brutality of war, The Tillman Story is incredibly disappointing. Not because the film is of dubious quality – the documentary is capable and competent – but because many leaders lied and let down the public who they were supposed to serve.
Pat Tillman was a safety who played for the Arizona Cardinals before he decided to leave millions on the table and enlist in the Army Rangers. Tillman never articulated the reasons behind his decision and expressed a desire to be treated like any other soldier. Both wishes were ignored after he was killed in action in April 2004.
Although Tillman requested a private funeral with no military involvement, Senator John McCain and other military personnel felt the need to insert themselves. Pedantic speeches, endeavouring to ascribe a higher purpose to Tillman’s choice, were punctuated by a frank and honest eulogy by his younger brother that suggested Tillman had been let down by those he trusted.
Though Tillman was shot by trigger-happy and ill-trained comrades, generals lied to his family and claimed it was a story of self-sacrifice. When the family tried to discover the truth, military investigato½rs were interviewed on the radio claiming that the Tillmans’ atheist beliefs motivated them to create grief for others.
The entire saga demonstrates how complicit the media has becomne with those who make the news. Stories are invented, reporters have become shallow cheerleaders. Anyone who takes the news without a grain of salt does so at their own risk. If politics influences military action, soldiers are trained to neither stop and think nor ask questions, and the media laps up the simplest explanation without any attempt to dig deeper, who is left to stand up for critical thinking and integrity? And the cycles keep repeating itself. **½