"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have a link to a site where the entire text is quoted?
I've found two paragraphs only, plus some out-of-context quotes.

Here is what my brother and sister-in-law sent to me. They are both Marines,
my brother being an IP at VMFAT-101.

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Pat Tillman is not a hero: He got what was coming to him

By Rene Gonzalez

April 28, 2004

When the death of Pat Tillman occurred, I turned to my friend who was
watching the news with me and said, "How much you want to bet they start
talking about him as a 'hero' in about two hours?" Of course, my friend did
not want to make that bet. He'd lose. In this self-critical incapable
nation, nothing but a knee-jerk "He's a hero" response is to be expected.

I've been mystified at the absolute nonsense of being in "awe" of Tillman's
"sacrifice" that has been the American response. Mystified, but not
surprised. True, it's not everyday that you forgo a $3.6 million contract
for joining the military. And, not just the regular army, but the elite Army
Rangers. You know he was a real Rambo, who wanted to be in the "real" thick
of things. I could tell he was that type of macho guy, from his scowling,
beefy face on the CNN pictures. Well, he got his wish. Even Rambo got shot
in the third movie, but in real life, you die as a result of being shot.
They should call Pat Tillman's army life "Rambo 4: Rambo Attempts to Strike
Back at His Former Rambo 3 Taliban Friends, and Gets Killed."

But, does that make him a hero? I guess it's a matter of perspective. For
people in the United States, who seem to be unable to admit the stupidity of
both the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars, such a trade-off in life standards (if
not expectancy) is nothing short of heroic. Obviously, the man must be made
of "stronger stuff" to have had decided to "serve" his country rather than
take from it. It's the old JFK exhortation to citizen service to the nation,
and it seems to strike an emotional chord. So, it's understandable why
Americans automatically knee-jerk into hero worship.

However, in my neighborhood in Puerto Rico, Tillman would have been called a
"pendejo," an idiot. Tillman, in the absurd belief that he was defending or
serving his all-powerful country from a seventh-rate, Third World nation
devastated by the previous conflicts it had endured, decided to give up a
comfortable life to place himself in a combat situation that cost him his
life. This was not "Ramon or Tyrone," who joined the military out of
financial necessity, or to have a chance at education. This was a "G.I. Joe"
guy who got what was coming to him. That was not heroism, it was prophetic
idiocy.

Tillman, probably acting out his nationalist-patriotic fantasies forged in
years of exposure to Clint Eastwood and Rambo movies, decided to insert
himself into a conflict he didn't need to insert himself into. It wasn't
like he was defending the East coast from an invasion of a foreign power.
THAT would have been heroic and laudable. What he did was make himself
useful to a foreign invading army, and he paid for it. It's hard to say I
have any sympathy for his death because I don't feel like his "service" was
necessary. He wasn't defending me, nor was he defending the Afghani people.
He was acting out his macho, patriotic crap and I guess someone with a
bigger gun did him in.

Perhaps it's the old, dreamy American thought process that forces them to
put sports greats and "larger than life" sacrificial lambs on the pedestal
of heroism, no matter what they've done. After all, the American nation has
no other role to play but to be the cheerleaders of the home team; a sad
role to have to play during conflicts that suffer from severe legitimacy and
credibility problems.

Matters are a little clearer for those living outside the American borders.
Tillman got himself killed in a country other than his own without having
been forced to go over to that country to kill its people. After all,
whether we like them or not, the Taliban is more Afghani than we are. Their
resistance is more legitimate than our invasion, regardless of the fact that
our social values are probably more enlightened than theirs. For that, he
shouldn't be hailed as a hero, he should be used as a poster boy for the
dangerous consequences of too much "America is #1," frat boy, propaganda
bull. It might just make a regular man irrationally drop $3.6 million to go
fight in a conflict that was anything but "self-defense." The same could be
said of the unusual belief of 50 percent of the American nation that thinks
Saddam Hussein was behind Sept. 11. One must indeed stand in awe of the
amazing success of the American propaganda machine. It works wonders.

Al-Qaeda won't be defeated in Afghanistan, even if we did kill all their
operatives there. Only through careful and logical changing of the
underlying conditions that allow for the ideology to foster will Al-Qaeda be
defeated. Ask the Israelis if 50 years of blunt force have eradicated the
Palestinian resistance. For that reason, Tillman's service, along with that
of thousands of American soldiers, has been wrongly utilized. He did die in
vain, because in the years to come, we will realize the irrationality of the
War on Terror and the American reaction to Sept. 11. The sad part is that we
won't realize it before we send more people like Pat Tillman over to their
deaths.

Rene Gonzalez is a UMass graduate student.



This is what I found on the UMass website.....

Statement of UMass President Jack M. Wilson

concerning Pat Tillman

Thanks to Pat Tillman and the many other men and women who have fought and
died for our freedom, Americans enjoy many rights, including the right to
speak and write as they see fit. Because of that right, we can voice
thoughtful, well-reasoned opinions, but the freedom of speech that we
treasure also protects expressions that are odious, wrong-headed and vile.

While I recognize Rene Gonzalez's right of free speech, I must also assert
my right of free speech to criticize what he said. The comments of Rene
Gonzalez in the April 28 Daily Collegian are a disgusting, arrogant and
intellectually immature attack on a human being who died in service to his
country. We are fortunate that so many people like Pat Tillman have made the
sacrifices necessary to protect the free speech rights of Mr. Gonzalez,
myself and our fellow citizens.

It is Mr. Gonzalez's right to be wrong, as he is in this case. It is a right
that Pat Tillman and many others have fought to defend. Mr. Gonzalez owes
Pat Tillman a debt of gratitude and an apology to the Tillman family and
friends.

-------------------------------

Tight Lines!
Brian D. Nelson
Diamond N Outfitters, Missoula, Montana
www.diamondnoutfitters.com