Pat Tillman

--King Arthur & the Questioning Beast,
Aubrey Beardsley

Arthur: Merlin, what's the most important quality in a knight?
Merlin: Well, it's courage, it's chivalry,
it's duty to your people, it's.....
Arthur: Stop wandering around! What is it, really?
Merlin: All right, I'll tell you! It's truth!
Every time you tell a lie, you murder some part of the world.
--Excalibur (1981)

I'm sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth
--Just Gimme Some Truth, John Lennon

Tell the truth about what you see and what you do. . .
don't never lie to a Ranger or officer
--Northwest Passage, Kenneth Roberts
________________

There is a photo of Corporal Pat Tillman in the Ranger section at the National Infantry Museum captioned by a patriotic blurb about what a swell fellow Cpl. Tillman was for abandoning a seductive big league ball career and joining the Rangers. But it also tells a lie.

The fact that Tillman was a great American and a fine man and Ranger is an indisputable fact. But the plaque concludes by saying the Cpl. Tillman died as the result of enemy fire, in an ambush. Which is a crock of crap.

The fact of his death in a friendly fire barrage was not mentioned. Ditto that fact that there were no enemy within rifle range. This propaganda is being pushed with my tax dollars, and it is a lie.

Lies are not a part of the Ranger creed and they violate Roger's Rules for Rangers. The Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) is a lie, as is the museum's version of Tillman's tragic death. Where does it end?

Is truth no longer a Ranger or an Infantry virtue? Tillman didn't die for our freedom; he died under exceptionally well-targeted friendly fire.

Ranger mourns not only the death of Tillman but the death of truth.