Elena, you have my deepest sympathies.  I would suggest that you contact Amy Goodman at Democracynow.org; relay both your story and your desire to reach the Tillman family.  You may also want to e-mail Cindy Sheehan who is currently running against Nancy Pelosi in SF.

#73617 by Janet on 5/29 at 1:56 am
(Unregistered commenter)

It’s hard to believe anyone would join the military, considering what the politicians do with the troops.

——
In many families military service is a point of honor and a tradition. Some see it as the ultimate expression of love for ones country. Others see service as a way to gain a useful trade or to amass funds for higher education.

Many currently being abused in Iraq and Afghanistan were already enlisted before it became clear how incompetent and cruel were the Bush/Cheney folks, thus it was too late for them, others enlisted in the fervor following 9/11, ditto. Currently enlistment is so far behind need that they are seeking desperately in Central and South America for enlistees, offering citizenship as bait…...

God is (still) Love, (all) war is (always) hell…...Strive On….....

Mike Mid-City’s comments about Blackwater are accurate and exceedingly timely.  On May 27 the Washington Post reported that Blackwater mercenaries [the Post refers to them as contractors] had opened fire on U.S.-supported Iraqi forces twice last week, killing an Iraqi driver near the Interior Ministry.

These mercenaries are exempt from prosecution under Iraqi law.  In “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s most powerful Mercenary Army,” Jeremy Scahill cites a June 2006 hearing in which Dennis Kucinich, after noting that American soldiers are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, questioned Shay Assad, the Pentagon’s Director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition, the agency responsible for contractors. Kucinich:...“Now, if someone with a private contracting company was involved in the murder of of a civilian, would the Department be ready to recommend their prosecution?”  Assdad:  “Sir, I’m just not qualified to answer that question.”  Kucinich noted that “no security contractor has been prosecuted” and renewed his question, Assad said he couldn’t answer it.  Kucinich said, “Wow.  Think about what that means.  These private contractors can get away with murder.”

While Blackwater operates inside Iraq outside the U.S. chain of command, here in the U.S. it has asserted that it is immune from lawsuits because it is a part of the U.S. forces.  While this argument did not succeed in derailing a lawsuit brought by the families of the four Blackwater mercenaries whose charred remains were hung from a bridge in Falluja filed lawsuit, Blackwater attorneys persuaded an administration-friendly judge to order the lawsuit into secret arbitration.  One of the three arbitrators is William Webster, who neglected to mention that he headed the CIA when Cofer Black, now an executive at Blackwater was there.  Black has now been tapped as Mitt Romney’s anti-terrorism advisor.

So if Iraq can’t prosecute, the Pentagon won’t prosecute and even civil litigation is shunted aside, Blackwater has become a law onto itself.

An eloquent message here ... we can all heed his words.

“How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice ... until we got out. ” Too true.

shane commented, “But ultimately, we bear full responsibility.”

Seems to me the idea of responsibility implies a degree of power: the power to exercise proper judgment in selecting a course of action and to embark on that path. Now, if I reflect on the voice of the people in 2000, the popular decision went to Gore. And Bush became president ultimately by the vote of one man.

2004 was not as obvious but it’s not beyond the realm of the possible that the people’s voice was subverted again.

As poll results have continued downward, and yielded a clear decision of the will of the people by the increase in opposition members of Congress, we thought there would be a change of direction. So, yes, we the people had the power to effect something but nothing really changed.

Sure, we now have endless hearings and investigations, resignations, op-eds, public demonstrations. And nothing really changes.

When Congress can issue or threaten a subpoena and the response is “go fly a kite” (pardon the euphemism) how am I or any citizen responsible?

We have a voice. Letters, phone calls, email, blogs, whatever ... just a voice crying in the wilderness. And no-one cares.

#73531 by Mike Mid-City on 5/28 at 4:21 pm
(78 comments total)

Well stated Mike,

Are you aware that the army now recruits in Central and South America, with the promise of citizenship after service? From one Vet to another, are you at all comfortable with this?

The private armies in Iraq, like Blackwater, Bushs’ dear friend, number in the tens of thousands, cost the taxpayer tens if not hundreds of millions, obey no rules of war, have been filmed indiscriminently shooting people on the streets and man some of the worst secret prisons. How do you feel about that? It sickens me, frankly.

Service to ones country is a sacred duty and avoiding the draft with its actually bringing this war home to all is a tactic of Bush and company to diminish the effects of this war on America.

RE: #73531 by Mike Mid-City on 5/28 at 4:21 pm
(78 comments total)

Well stated Mike,

Are you aware that the army now recruits in Central and South America, with the promise of citizenship after service? From one Vet to another, are you at all comfortable with this?

The private armies in Iraq, like Blackwater, Bushs’ dear friend, number in the tens of thousands, cost the taxpayer tens if not hundreds of millions, obey no rules of war, have been filmed indiscriminently shooting people on the streets and man some of the worst secret prisons. How do you feel about that? It sickens me, frankly.

Service to ones country is a sacred duty and avoiding the draft with its actually bringing this war home to all is a tactic of Bush and company to diminish the effects of this war on America.

Only the dead have seen the end of war. War is a constant in the human condition.  It is amazing to me that we have yet to control this thing. Like Kennedy once said: “If we don’t put an end to war, war will put an end to us”.  Truer words have never been spoken.

For those of you interested in two truly outstanding essays on the condition of war, I highly recommend “Only the Dead Have Seen the End of War,” and “Human Hell and the Demons of War”. Links below.

http://valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com/2004/11/only -dead-have-seen-end-of-war.html

http://valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com/2006/09/huma n-hell-and-demons-of-war.html

Many Americans, including the Tillman brothers, were tricked by the sophisticated propaganda and deception campaign by the Bush-Cheney administration and their associates.

How deep and wide is this deception operation, and what are the connections to oil, other “allies” in the region and the 9/11 attacks?

What was the involvement of Paul Wolfowitz and many others associated with him and the Bush-Cheney administration?

Food for thought in:

“Mind wars: Americans, global community are targets of deception on Iraq, threats to peace”

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArtic le.asp?articleID=14097

-  -  -

“Congressional inquiries on Iraq War can enhance honor and strength of America”

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArtic le.asp?articleID=16328

Mr. Tillman and Mr. Kovik,
You both have made very eloquent and right on statements regarding our present malaise.

Mr. Tillman; yours is a masterful reckoning of the present crimes against America by this administration.  Of all of the people, yours should be a rallying point and call to action.

As to the wounded, Mr. Kovik, you are the authority, beyond doubt!

God help us!

“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is now controlled by its system of credit.

“We are no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominate men.”

Woodrow Wilson, 1919

It was under Woodrow Wilson’s presidency that the Federal Reserve Act was signed into law in 1913, granting power to a private consortium of bankers to print money and charge interest for it as loans to the government. The unconstitutionality of such laws had already been upheld by the supreme court. Before that signing, the government used its constitutional power to print its own money interest free and make it redeemable as gold and silver certificates.

All we have to do is trace the history of government documents on energy policy to clearly and explicitly see that our troops exist fundamentally to protect American industrial interests and lifestyle by ensuring energy supplies for our insatiable energy appetite. This goes back to the so-called oil embargo under Carter with the relatively explicit language found in foreign and military policy documents from that era on. However, it goes back much further with less explicit language.

For any of us with our our heads on half-way straight, it is a strong condemnation that Bush et al refused to make even token gestures toward energy independence until politically cornered, while committing to gargantuan financing for a “pre-emptive war” from the banking cartel (the private international banking consortium most of us innocently call by the gross misnomer “Federal” Reserve Board). Our government effectively works for this banking cartel, since the national debt is so large that our personal income tax (as opposed to corporate taxes) doesn’t even cover the interest, and so personal income tax goes to absolutely no government services, but instead…!

Well, let’s just say that it goes to all those lovely people who have personally financed and/or profited hugely from arms trade and most of the wars of the 20th century up until right here and now after the beginning of the 21st. The publicly-never-fully-listed participants in this cartel are today’s Great Pirates (a term Buckminster Fuller used for those who have historically actually run things).

I would add my thoughts to this quite moving thread, once my tear filled eyes allow me to type that is….

Two young Americans, moved to do their duty for the country they loved, one giving up great wealth to do so, and paying the ultimate price as well…....

Kevin Tillman has learned, in a way none of us should have to do so, about the hypocracy of our nations leadership. he has become a spokesperson for all who have sacrificed so much for those who deserve it so little. We should all of us, each and every one, think about the thousands of Americans and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have died to enrich a very few unprincipled bastards. We should renew our pledge to end this awful war, and to throw out the leadership that makes it continue, in any way necesary.

Sorry, Bush/Cheney do not know how to read this story. They only know how to make their wealth becoming thicker everyday and forget that they’re caught in dilemma !

Politicians and preachers love to talk about those who have fought and died for our freedom, but perhaps if we are honest we should also talk about those who have fought and died for our follies, such as Vietnam and Iraq.  But while these two wars are the most recent major blunders of our political leadership, the list goes back much farther.  If you are unfamiliar with the Philippine insurrection that followed the Spanish American war, the parallels between it and Vietnam are remarkable.

Sadly, I guess we as a nation will never learn.

This is, perhaps, one of the most well-written indictments of those who bear the responsibility for our current situation.  The American people.

Sure, we can blame the President. And yes, we can blame both the last Congress and this one…  But ultimately, we bear full responsibility.

Democracy is not something to be exercised once every to two four years at the polling booth (something which a large portion of America cannot even be bothered with) but it is a full-time obligation… and being a citizen of this once-great nation comes with responsibility, not privilege.

Kevin Tillman’s powerful, fact-filled presentation not only serves to expose the truth about his brother’s death but to expose the dispicable travesty that has been the hallmark of our Orwellian leadership.  As I watched it, I could not help but think of the cowardly reaction of the Democratic candidates for President when they stood like frozen statues in response to the question as to who would join with Dennis Kucinich in calling for the impeachment of that war criminal, Dick Cheney.  These are sad times when, despite overwhelming “public” support, we still lack an “elected leadership” capable of standing up to the lawless cabal that has stolen elections, stolen the presidency, stolen much of the national treasury and, most of all, stolen our honor.