Tillman

I've been asked to react to the Washington Post's report on the circumstances of Pat Tillman's death and the army's cover-up effort. However, I couldn't put it any better than this.

I just want to add that Tillman is not the slightest bit less worthy of admiration because of the tragicomic way that he died. His primary virtues did not lie in his actual abilities as a soldier, which, nevertheless, were considerable. Rather, his virtues were that he traded an easy life for a hard one, maintained his equanimity in the face of his own potential untimely death, and did something almost unthinkable in our culture: became an uncelebrity. Had he tried to, Tillman could have transformed himself into something like an Army Ranger rockstar. But he only ever wanted to be another soldier. His example is more inspiring than the collected political writings of Noam Chomsky. He and his comrades deserve better (sorry to cheapen the discussion) than the enabler of Abu Ghraib in charge of the Pentagon.