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No greater love hath this...than a man lay down his life for his friends

Sgt. Pat Tillman walked away from a $3.5 million NFL contract in 2002 to join the US Army Rangers, leaving
both his career and his new bride behind. He and his brother Kevin, (who walked away from a minor-league
baseball career) served in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

After leaving Iraq, both men returned to the States for special elite training, before being sent back to
Afghanistan, where the brothers served in the same platoon. Sgt. Tillman was killed while with his unit, part
of the 75th Ranger Regiment, hunting for al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in southeastern Afghanistan. He was
twenty-seven years old.

Pat Tillman was unique in that he embodied all that is good about America -- and his life stands in stark
contrast to the ravings of politicians like Charley Rangel or John Kerry, who claim the military is unfair.

Rangel is attempting to have the government reinstate the draft, claiming the all-volunteer force is
disproportionately poor and consists mainly of minorities. According to Rangel, the only way to get guys like
Pat Tillman into uniform is to draft them. The only ones currently serving, following Rangel's line of thinking,
are those Americans too poor, too disadvantaged and too stupid to get real jobs.

Then there are guys like John Kerry who, if given the authority of the White House, would turn it over to the
United Nations. In John Kerry's world, Sgt. Tillman would have died under the command of the organization
that propped up Saddam Hussein for a dozen years in order to loot Iraq's oil wealth.

But Sgt. Tillman didn't join the US Army Rangers to serve the United Nations -- Tillman gave his life for his
COUNTRY, not for some universalist supra-national debating society whose interests almost always are at
odds with what is good for America. Tillman wasn't a member of the dregs of Rangel's society, he was the
cream of America's youth.

Sgt Tillman was an American -- a real American. He wasn't the kind of guy to talk out both sides of his
mouth. He knew what needed to be done and he did it. Tillman is representative of an America that baffles
the liberals.

Former Reagan speechwriter and Wall Street Journal Opinion columist Peggy Noonan summed it up, writing
in 2002, "As the Vietnam-era song said, "Something's happening here." And what it is may be exactly clear.
Some very talented young men, and women, are joining the armed forces in order to help their country
because, apparently, they love it. After what our society and culture have been through and become the past
30 years or so, you wouldn't be sure that we would still be making their kind, but we are."

As the comedian Mort Sahl likes to say, "We live in the worst political system in the world -- except for all the
others."

Pat Tillman died defending that system. But it goes beyond that. He joined the Army without expectation or
agenda beyond doing what he believed to be the right thing. He was besieged by interview requests from all
manner of media, for obvious reasons.

Tillman turned down all requests. He joined the Army to defend his country, not exploit his fame.

Sgt. Tillman lived for his country. And he died for it. Despite idiots like Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton who
keep talking about 'quagmires' and 'another Vietnam' America is still capable of producing heroes like Sgt.
Pat Tillman.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

Semper Fi