empty rhetoric

The Pat Tillman “scandal” in my mind ranks about as high as the 9/11 “truth” movement in terms of outright dishonesty. The progressive movement has seized upon what was by all accounts a simple miscommunication in the higher echelons of Army leadership as a launching point for a vast and complicated indictment that, unsurprisingly, leads all the way to the White House itself.

Perhaps it is the supposed end of the scandal that so obviously reveals it to be a mere political sham– the repeated claims that Bush used Tillman’s death to cheerlead the war effort all while knowing that he was killed in friendly fire isn’t a very big scandal to being with– as such, many have suggested that Bush had Tillman killed due to his political viewpoint (which was apparently anti-Bush).

The overreach that so often characterizes leftist narrative is perhaps the easiest clue to its authenticity. Leftists are eager to link whatever scandals they possibly can to the White House, particularly at individuals such as Cheney and Rove. From the Libby indictment to accusations that 9/1 itself was born out of a White House plan to justify the invasion of Afghanistan, conspiracy theories, regardless of their veracity, always end in the White House– whether it makes sense or not.

It shouldn’t surprise us, then, that the media circus that has been slowly gathering around the Tillman hearings would give credence to such opinions, and that progressives have seized the opportunity to point out, once again, that the lack of evidence is evidence itself– a striking claim, given that it makes almost every assertion about any subject trustworthy. Indeed, the more evidence something has, it seems, the less credible it should be.

Which isn’t to say that, were evidence supporting the claim that Tillman’s death was used as a propaganda tool to surface, that one should ignore it– it is merely to assert once again that it is always dangerous to ascribe motives of conspiracy to an even that can better be explained by incompetence, especially given the often chaotic nature of combat– even mistaken combat.

What is most tragic about the incident is the fact that a larger political movement with a long history of manipulating the grief of soldier’s families (Cindy Sheehan, Lila Lipscomb, etc.) has once again turned what is by all accounts a terrible error on the part of the Army and transformed it into a manufactured, carefully handled political scandal. One hopes that Tillman’s family will be better treated by the progressive movement than Cindy Sheehan, who was carelessly tossed aside once her ‘moral authority’ had been spent.