Maybe it's just me, but a man who was at the center of the fiasco involving the death of a truly American Hero a man making multi-millions of year playing pro football who walked away from it to join the Army in the days following 9-11, to do his duty to the nation he loved, should not be forgiven and promoted to a 4 star General.
He died an unfortunate death and a death by mistake, he was killed by friendly fire, but the Department of Defense and the Bush Administration used his death as a propaganda tool, an attempt to revitalize enlistments. To make a "hero" out of a national icon, who did not need to be made a "hero" he was just because of his own actions, giving up millions of dollars to become an Army Ranger. Despite knowing his death was by friendly fire, the Army still awarded him the Silver Star, and wrote a bogus citation justifying it. LTG McChrystal was the Commander of the Special Operations Command that controlled the Ranger battalion in Afghanistan.
In this article it shows the men at the heart of the mess
The four generals cited as providing misleading or inaccurate information regarding Tillman’s death are Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C.; Brig. Gen. James Nixon, director of operations for U.S. Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.; retired Lt. Gen. Phillip Kensinger Jr., former commanding general of Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg; and retired Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, former chief of staff for USASOC.
This article gives the complete timeline of the Pat Tillman debacle Blow-by-blow :The Pat Tillman congressional hearing
Lawmakers will have some hard questions ready for uniformed and civilian Pentagon leaders today as they try to get to the bottom of the friendly-fire death of football star and San Jose native Pat Tillman.
We'll be weighing in on the action, starting at 7 a.m. PDT Tuesday.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, headed by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, has scheduled the hearing, suggestively titled "Misleading Information from the Battlefield," which will probe the April 22, 2004 killing of Tillman in Afghanistan -- as well as the March 23, 2003 capture and subsequent release of Pvt. Jessica Lynch in Iraq.
The public hearing will be live-cast on the committee's website.
Waxman, as chairperson of the committee, is bedeviling the Bush administration over several other high-profile issues in which the White House is accused of covering up misdeeds -- the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, the White House use of private email accounts to evade public scrutiny of its political maneuverings, and alleged overcharging by Halliburton and other military contractors in Iraq.
On the Tillman and Lynch cases, Waxman and other committee members such as Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, are expected to be loaded for bear. The more dramatic emotional moments are likely to come when Tillman's mother, Mary, and brother, Kevin, testify.
The recent Pentagon Inspector General's report on Tillman's death, which appears to have added fuel to the fire, is here.
Today Secretary of Defense Gates and Admiral Mullen basically fired General McKiernan of the Afghanistan forces and replaced him with General McChrystal (I wonder if he has to be submitted to Congress and confirmed for his 4th star?)
In todays WAPO article on the change
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today asked for the resignation of the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, saying the U.S. military "must do better" in executing the administration's new strategy there.
Gates recommended that President Obama nominate veteran Special Operations commander Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal to replace McKiernan, who would depart as soon as a successor is confirmed. Gates also recommended that Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, the former head of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan who is currently serving as Gates's military assistant, be nominated to serve in a new position as McChrystal's deputy.
The leadership shift comes as the Obama administration has voiced increasingly urgent concern about the surge in violence in Afghanistan as well as unrest in neighboring Pakistan.
Later in the article Sec Gates was asked if this would end General McKienarns military career, his simple answer was "probably" being asked to resign your command, is not a good career move. but to be replaced by LTG McChrystal is a double whammy in my opinion, I can only imagine how the Tillman family feels today, "sucker punched" is my guess.
Off subject I have page on DFA for a Netroots Scholarship as Mike Bailey please consider recommending me for one of the ten slots, I would appreciate it.