Well, this is an unpleasant turn of events.

The doctors _ whose names were blacked out _ said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.

Ultimately, the Pentagon did conduct a criminal investigation, and asked Tillman’s comrades whether he was disliked by his men and whether they had any reason to believe he was deliberately killed. The Pentagon eventually ruled that Tillman’s death at the hands of his comrades was a friendly-fire accident.

[…]
_ In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop “sniveling.”

_ Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-criminal, punishments.

_ The three-star general who kept the truth about Tillman’s death from his family and the public told investigators some 70 times that he had a bad memory and couldn’t recall details of his actions.

_ No evidence at all of enemy fire was found at the scene _ no one was hit by enemy fire, nor was any government equipment struck.

What I had supposed was bad enough — a Friendly fire accident blown out to Hero under Fire for a quick Draft Day Propaganda Play — followed by the necessary dismissal as inconvenient information spouted out.  I have a difficult time wrapping my mind around this, but then again I’ve developed a one-dimensional and not terribly sophisticated view of what happens on the battle-field — comradeship trumps all.
I have a faint feeling that some interesting things would be posted on Free Republic right about now.  The gutteral emotional response for Pat Tillman, and on to the political identity ramifications, are nothing if not a roller-coaster ride and schizophrenic — although to be fair, they’ve solved part of the confusion by simply denying the inconvenient.  (And my first thought on seeing this news release was an image of someone in his brigade telling him to shut up his “defeatocrat” rantings — something I brushed out of mind because — really, what do I know?)  The quickest of searches brings me the comments for the posting of the story Pat Tillman’s Mother Accuses Bush of Hiding Facts (Which, perhaps not Bush himself but his administration, is pretty well a given)

Sounds like she’s about to go Cindy Sheehan all over us.

OR to the article on his brother speaking on the Pentagon:

Pat Tillman’s brother Kevin speaks out against war (Kevin Tillman Goes Cindy Sheehan)

“Follow the money….”Isn’t ESPN owned by ABC, which in turn is owned by Disney, which in turn is very leftist?

I did finally find the posting of the story, under a “Warning: Lefty Smear Campaign Alert”.  A number of gunfire re-enactments to counter the story, and there is a certain amount of haggling over whether item #1 and #4 contradict each other.  Also prisonplanet is a “lefty” site, a notion that will be dispelled during the next Democratic presidency, probably (Or right this minute if you want to read its illegal immigration rhetoric).
All in all I probably should not have gone there.

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