Betrayal is the only truth that sticks. - Arthur Miller

Pat Tillman (left) and his brother Kevin stand in front of a Chinook helicopter in Saudi Arabia before their tour of duty as Army Rangers in Iraq in 2003.

From the editors:

There has been a game of tug-of-war played between the right and left using the corpse of former NFL player and Afghanistan war casualty Pat Tillman. He had a multimillion dollar contract playing ball for the Arizona Cardinals but quit shortly after Sept. 11, 2001 and enlisted in the Army.

Pat Tillman told interviewers that people like him, rich and educated, often do not equally share the burden of defending the country on the battlefield, and he felt that he should. His lesser well known brother, Kevin, who also played sports at Arizona State University, was drafted by the Anaheim Angels but left and joined the Army as well.

They both became members of the elite Rangers and served in Afghanistan in the same unit.

Originally, the U.S. Army tried to cover up the fact that Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire in April 2004. And according to a recent Sports Illustrated story, members of the unit lied to Kevin about their role in Pat Tillman’s death.

It’s easy to dismiss Pat Tillman as a tool of the war machine, and many on the left did, until it was learned that Pat Tillman had a flaming bleeding heart and was even trying to arrange a meeting with philosopher Noam Chomsky before he was killed by his fellow Rangers. We also learned that the government wanted to make a poster boy out of Pat Tillman, helping to recruit other well-meaning young people, but Tillman refused and demanded that he be given a combat assignment.

Since then the right has backed off the square-jawed defensive back and business marketing major, and the left has picked up his body. It's fucking disgusting, we believe.

Then, last week, Kevin Tillman, who has since been discharged from the Army and kept to himself, sold an open letter to a lefty Web site, just in time for the Nov. 7 mid-term election.

If Keith Olbermann or Al Franken said these words, they wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. That they came from a veteran who lost his brother on the battlefield give them a power that cannot be easily dismissed. Maybe that isn’t fair, maybe it shouldn’t matter who is saying the words, they should be judged on their own merits.

We are republishing Kevin Tillman’s letter in it’s entirety. We believe it is the most important piece of writing to emerge from this fetid period in history.

It’s beautiful in its rage and from our position, Kevin Tillman is the only person alive that has the right to carry his brother's body.

Maybe it isn’t fair, but we implore all Howlin’ Leroy Eenk readers to consider Kevin Tillman’s words. The man he’s talking about, his brother, Pat Tillman, could have been president.

After Pat’s Birthday
By Kevin Tillman
Special to Truthdig

It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we got out.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the military.

Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It’s interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.

Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.

Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.

Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.

Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.

Somehow this is tolerated.

Somehow nobody is accountable for this.

In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don’t be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most likely, they will come to know that “somehow” was nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference, leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged parasites.

Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat’s birthday.

Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,

Kevin Tillman