What happened afterwards is, I agree, unexcusable.
Lying by a General Officer about the circumstances surrounding the death of one of his soldiers is the scandal here. McChrystal signed a Silver Star citation for Tillman that stated he was killed by hostile fire. He knew that was not true when he signed it, and he participated in the cover up of the truth. McChrystal should have been cashiered on the spot. That he was not is beyond scandalous.
ARE WE sure that was the way it happened, timing of signing the Citation and everything.
and if it was not the truth, did they move ahead because of the family and they were not clear on exactly what happened..., and then it was later when it all sorted out?
Believing the general intended to cover-up for any other reason than to prevent additional pain to the family or the blow to public morale that the death of who many consider a hero would be is to imply that Tillman’s death by friendly fire itself was scandalous.
What happened afterwards is, I agree, unexcusable.
If that were provable, and it would easily be provable had it happened, McChrystal would have lost a star or two.
And even if it were true, Tillman’s family has done nothing but tarnish the memory of his service and his sacrifice. I’m beginning to wonder if their vendetta is not even about grief or some sort of “justice,” but just that they cannot give up the resentment and bitterness that they all thought they’d be living it up on Pat’s NFL and military stardom when he got back — and instead they might have been left financially hurt by his death.
At some point, they need to respect the fact that their son chose to do this, in part because he wanted to HONOR the service of the men in his family AND be a role model for others. His family is completely taking that away from him — as if his one dying wish is being stomped on by their selfish anger.
The Cardinals have placed a statute of Tillman in a memorial circle in front of their new stadium. Cannot the Tillman family be satisfied that year after year people will go there and reflect upon a man who gave up football to serve his country after 9/11 and who made the ultimate sacrifice of service? Isn’t that better than bitterly trying to diminish what Pat did?
And, again, I can guarandamntee if there was sufficient evidence that GEN McChrystal had intentionally acted to cover up Tillman’s cause of death as you state, he would have been cashiered immediately. Plus I don’t think people understand the process for signing citations of awards — these are NOT reviewed individually by the signer. There is an entire process, including sometimes an awards review board, that goes into effect before the citations are taken for signature. (And many citations are signed by autopen!)