Pat Tillman's Birthday

That gave me goose bumps.

 

The Swift Boat veterans served their country too - yet the term "swiftboated" in your context denigrates that service.

I greatly admire Kevin Tillman for his service and I do take what he says more seriously than if it had come from some pundit. He has given me food for thought.

I do find it reprehensible that certain people on this board who have never had any of their family members serve in the US military would be the ones to try and use someone like Kevin Tillman to further their own arguments on one hand but then wouldn't hesitate to use the words "stormtroopers", "swiftboated" or say compare Marines in Iraq to the soldiers who committed the Mai Lai massacre. These same people are the same ones so fond of calling others Chickenhawks.

 

Great-great grandfather is in an unmarked grave in Tennessee. Drafted into the Union Army at 41 with eight children and a ninth on the way. Dead two months later. Am I permitted to speak now?
"Swiftboating" has nothing to do with prior service, it has everything to do with recent dis-service to this country.
The Swift Boaters reside in the same foul, stinking rat-infested cellar as those pols in Georgia whose ads tied Max Cleland, who left three limbs in Vietnam, to Osama Bin Laden.

 

It could be that I'm totally heartless, but I wasn't all that moved by it.

I'm opposed to the war, but I'm not going to pretend I thought this was some eloquent, finely-wrought argument against it.

 

Cindy Sheehan incurred the wrath of Chris L and his cronies around here because she was one of the first to demonstrate against Bush's illegal war. She lost a son. She has as much credibility and as much right to her opinion as Tillman whose stance I also admire.

Oh, and btw, Chris, Swiftboating is a term like Whitewatering, referring to the lengths the dishonourable people on the right will go to besmirch public figures--at any cost.

Oh, and Chris, in case that snide comment about "not having members serve in the military" was directed at me you can go fuck yourself. My father lost two brothers in Holland in WW11.

 

Having to discuss legacies of who's family served in what war, in order to debate a subject just turns it into a nothing more than another "who's dick is bigger?" contest. This board is inhabited by people with legitimate social issues on its best day. Adding the war-veteran qualifier just adds to the dysfunction.

 

You can thank our man Chris for that. He was the one who injected it into the debate. It's the military version of "He never played the game".

 

So, that'd be the same way we can thank you for injecting Sheehan, right?

 

Uh, no, Poindexter injected Sheehan into the thread with his bullshit picture and post. But you righties are never wrong.

 

Post 2 in the entire fucking thread. Before anyone could even make a comment on Tillman or the linked story:

"Wow.

Waiting for the Cindy Sheehan haters to demonstrate their consistency."

/insert your own gratuitous shot about "you lefties" here

 

And goddamn. Even when I want to agree with some of you, you come off as so fucking arrogant it's nearly impossible to do.

 

Look, I brought Sheehan into the debate for a simple reason. There are many here (and out there) who have lambasted her for her position on the war and her constant public appearances. She may be a nutbar, she may be over the top but she has a legitimate right to express her opinion given the fact her son died in the war. Her position isn't dissimilar from the Tillmans.

I was just wondering whether those same people would do the same head stomping on Tillman--a legitimate question. His brother's death was very high profile and he was painted as the All American Hero by Friends of Fredo.

That's all.

And once again, as FB pointed out, he could be swiftboated in a nanosecond.