Here are details on the fire fight in a mountainous area of Afghanistan where Tillman was killed.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,118064,00.html

Tillman was that rare thing: an inner-directored man. His life was not a stunt, or some cheap reality show for the public to watch.

The antiwar.com freaks are ragging on this guy. Check out top entry on my blog. Pathetic.

I want to qualify my use of the Yeats quote. The poem could be read as suggesting that the Irish Airman is indifferent to the actual war and its stakes, that he only cares about the private joy and risks of flying. I did not use the poem with that intention at all. I meant that Tillman was following a higher cause, but that, like the Irish Airman, he did this for his own chosen reasons, not for the sake of public men and cheering crowds. The Irish Airman could be seen as a Nietzschean figure, beyond good and evil, seeking delight from something that has no public meaning. But Tillman found his “delight” in following the good. What the Irish Airman and Tillman have in common is the self-directed nature of their path.

I would like to point out to roach that the only poster from antiwar.com on that board was Jeremy Sapienza.
I will admit, though, that he is a very… boorish individual, to put it mildly.

Pat Tillman - American Hero - an “athlete who wanted to use his talents in the service of a higher mission”

what a role model he is volunteering to selflessly serve his country, turning down the trappings of wealth and fame. why we should all aspire to be like the late mr. tillman because war is heroic.

this is the kind of propaganda that nbc, fox et al are pumping out at the moment. it is disgusting - he didnt die for his country, he died because he volunteered to join the army. an army that is posted in a foreign country where they have no jurisdiction, no right to be there. war isnt a game, people get killed and now we have one more coffin adorned with the stars and stripes. and it wont be the last. who do they think they are? who declared the US the police of the world? for every one american casualty at least 10 innocent civilians have been caught in the crossfire. from the people that brought us “collateral damage” im not at all surprised.

pat tillman - patriot, hero, statistic.

So here’s the voice of the anti-war left. UCD Lefty type doesn’t even think we should have handled the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. We should have just left that regime in place, where an entire country was turned over to the convenience of a terrorist organization launching mass murder attacks against the U.S. To take proper action to destroy that regime and make sure it doesn’t get back into power to harm us again is, according to UCD, “being the policeman of the world.” It’s evident that UCD doesn’t believe in any kind of policemen, and any kind of national defense. He would turn the world over to anarchy and mass murder, while despising the people who actually try to protect us from them. There is a word for UCD, but I won’t use it here.

I think that Pat Tillman gave up a very lucrative career to pursue the course that he believed would benefit the security of his country. That is, in my opinion, a sigh of a very noble character even if one disagrees as to whether the war in Afghanistan actually promoted our safety.
Personally, I was and still am in support of the ousting of the Taliban.

firstly it was only with the contribution (as authorised by the rebublican party) of some $40mn dollars in may 2001 that the taliban came to power, effectively meaning that the “entire country was turned over to the convenience of a terrorist organization”. this was despite their then track record on human rights abuses that makes sharia law seem liberal. this record didnt change up to and including sept 2001. however tragic the loss of 3000+ american “consumers” (sorry citizens) was, this pales in comparison to the loss of innocent afghan civilian life. the “accidental” bombing of a school and surrounding installatations with the loss of 16 children went largely unnoticed by a mainstream media more concerned with rising oil prices than the slow disintegration of world relations ever since gee dub became the first unelected leader of a western democracy.

so no i dont support the removal by force of the regime when they helped implement it in the first place. strange that a similarly hospitable regime is in place in saudi arabia yet the U.S. dont seem to be too concerned about deposing crown prince abdullah and the boyos.

in fact on the fateful day itself, of the 19 hijackers, 15 were Saudi citizens. Many al-Qaeda fighters are from Saudi Arabia, as is Osama bin Laden himself. strange that saudi hasnt been singled out yet for such abuses and affiliations. can anyone think why that would be? Yes - Saudi Arabia accounts for about 20 percent of total U.S. crude-oil imports and 10 percent of U.S. oil consumption. Saudi Arabia has often sold oil to the United States at less than its market value, which has saved the United States hundreds of millions of dollars. or in mathematical terms (cos i know thats what u righties like) people < profit.

speaking of murder incidentally, iraq/afghanistan squabbles aside - every “free” western democracy apart from the good old U.S. vehemently opposed the unlawful killings of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin & Abdul Aziz Rantisi. “terrorist organisation launching (mass) murder attacks” is a pretty appropriate phrase if u ask me.

and as far as i am aware the un is the recognised body for the mediation & resolution of international disputes. so i suppose i’d have to concede that the un is in fact the officially recognised police of the world.

I don’t have much to say on the bulk of UCD Lefty’s stereotypical comments - we could simply assume them from his posting handle and save the screen space - but I thought I would point this out:

“and as far as i am aware the un is the recognised body for the mediation & resolution of international disputes. so i suppose i’d have to concede that the un is in fact the officially recognised police of the world.”

Classic: transnational progressives _want_ there to be a world government, so they _assume_ it into existence. A mediocre diplomatic forum that hosts conventions of diplomats and despots for discussion over hors d’vores has become, hey presto, the “official” world government to which national governments are subordinate; all in a plenary act of leftist will. No ratification, no pesky process; just pure, unadulterated assertion.

Nominalism in action, my friends.

A person who describes Israel as a “terrorist organisation launching (mass) murder attacks” terrorist for killing the individuals who leading the mass terrorist murder of its citizens will have to find another place to carry on his discussions.

I would suggest he’d fit right in at Indymedia.org, but judging from their recent postings, it sounds like he’s already made his presence known there:
http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/default.asp?archiveID=427

Indymedia is twisted, but don’t you wish Catholic bishops had their nerve?:
“Voting for John Kerry, is a vote for violence. If you vote for John Kerry, you are supporting the killing of human beings, the majority of whom will be people just trying to live their lives. If you vote for John Kerry, you are advocating violence and putting your own stamp of approval on killing… If elected, he is going to preside over many many deaths, carried out for profit and/or political expediency.”

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/04/287002.shtml

“firstly it was only with the contribution (as authorised by the rebublican party) of some $40mn dollars in may 2001 that the taliban came to power, effectively meaning that the “entire country was turned over to the convenience of a terrorist organization”.”

Where do I start with this? The Taliban came to power in Kandahar in 1994 and captured Kabul in 1996. By May 2001 they controlled everything but the Northern Alliance stronghold in the Panjshir Valley.

What happened in May 2001 was we gave them $43 million for crop substitution in exchange for eradicating the opium crop — which they did do. I couldn’t tell you what they spent the $43 million on, but they definitely razed the poppy fields and locked up some heroin smugglers.

If there’s an Afghan comparison to Sept. 11 to be made, it’s this: In the ten years that they won the Cold War for us, 1979-1989, they suffered the equivalent of a Sept. 11 every two weeks.

UCD Lefty does raise one fair question: Why *do* the Saudis get a free pass?

Pat Tillman’s death and life should be read by all Iraqui’s.