The tragic death of Pat Tillman has invoked some stirring tributes from columnists, bloggers, and politicians. The outpouring of grief and admiration for the young man has been extraordinary. All weekend I’ve thought about this young soldier’s death, and while I don’t have anything particularly profound to say about him, I think his example says some profound things about our country, especially our priorities as a nation.
For instance, almost every mention of Tillman refers first to his role as a football player for the Arizona Cardinals and then, almost in passing, that he was a member of the elite Army Rangers. I have a long-standing love of sports and a special affinity for professional football. But football is a game. A game. While it’s certainly an honorable occupation, it pales in comparison to the achievement of serving in the Army, much less to being a Ranger.
Why is pride of place given to his achievements on the gridiron rather than on the battlefield? And what does it say about a country that esteems its entertainers more than its warriors? Devote your life to the protection of your fellow citizens and you’ll get respectful nods and a livable wage. Devote your life to the protection of a quarterback and you’ll be worshipped as a hero and paid a king’s ransom. The absurdity of it all would be laughable if it weren’t so depressing.
And then there’s the money. Sadly, in America, it always comes around to money. Let’s be honest. Unless you lived in Arizona or were a dedicated fan of the NFL, you probably had never heard of Pat Tillman before his untimely death. The chances are just as great that he would have remained an obscure figure, like the other 39 who have died in combat in Afghanistan, had it not been for a remarkable number -- 3.6 million.
The three-year, $3.6 million deal from Arizona that Tillman turned down to join the Army caught a lot of people’s attention. Almost everyone I talked to -- from my wife to old Marine buddies -- were dumbfounded that he would walk away from that much money. (Curiously, no one mentioned that he also left behind his new bride.) Though they would never admit that money was what they valued most, they found it unfathomable that Tillman would forego such a large salary in order to earn $18,000 a year.
The reaction didn’t exactly surprise me (I am, after all, realistically cynical about human nature) but it did cause me to wonder about the implications.
What if a member of the Taliban were to offer every able-bodied American male $3 million to join them in fighting against the U.S. The offer would be open to anyone who would simply pledge their commitment, regardless of their ability to contribute to the terrorist’s cause. My guess is that almost no one would admit they’d take the deal. In fact, they would undoubtedly be deeply offended if you were to presume that they would commit such an act of treason. No amount of money, they’d claim, would be enough to entice them into betraying their country.
But what if we were to slightly alter the scenario. What if the Taliban were simply to offer the same amount in return for not taking up arms against them. They would pay a handsome reward for every draft-eligible male who was willing to simply sit on the sidelines and do nothing. Let’s also assume that you cannot know how many of your fellow citizens will take the offer. Maybe you will be one of the few who take the money, leaving plenty of others to stand and fight. But, then again, what if everyone were to choose the payday, leaving no one to protect our country? What should you do? Would you take the money?
Let me make it clear that this analogy is in no way meant to be similar to Tillman’s situation. I use it simply as a thought experiment and to point out a peculiar economic assumption. Given Tillman’s choice, most people would have taken the money for the simple reason that the opportunity cost of joining the Army would have been exorbitant.
The truth is that this choice is made every day -- and for a lot less than $3 million. Military service carries some form of opportunity cost for almost everyone who serves. Whether a delayed college education, a reduction in potential future earnings, or a position on a pro football team, many people who answer the call will pay a high price for the years they spend in sacrifice to their country.
The vast majority of Americans are, therefore, more than willing to let someone else (presumably someone with fewer opportunities than they have) carry their load for them. Of course they are able to rationalize the choice because of a single basic assumption: they personally don’t have to protect their country because someone else is willing to do so.
What makes Tillman truly special and unique is not what he walked away from but what he embraced. When his country was attacked he didn’t ask, 'Who will go?" He didn’t wear yellow ribbons, fly the flag on his car, and talk about how he’d 'support the troops." He simply said, 'Send me."
God bless Pat Tillman. He made sacrifices for his country that were worth more than gold. He walked away from fame, love, and comfort in order to hunt down evil men who would harm his nation. If America is to survive we will have to find a way to make more citizens like Tillman. We already have more than enough who look around and wonder, 'Who will go?" What we need are more who'll respond, 'Send me."
going off the tread from the last post, i think the reason he is getting so much press that being a football player, he is one of priveledged class, making 3.6 million.
he drafted himself, which is an honorable thing to do: live up to your convictions. I don't agree with this war or why it is being fought, but i do respect someone willing to die for what they beleive.
too bad dying for what you believe in this case meant killing other people. i wonder what good he could done in the world by say joining the peace core instead of the military. he would probably still be alive and maybe the world would be a more peaceful place becasue of his building community, instead of destroying it. 'peace through superior firepower' doesn't work, there are daily examples of that iraq and the forgotten 'war': afganistan. an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
18,000 is not enough pay for an army ranger. In fact, it's a disgrace. Many make more off welfare.
Yeah, those stupid people in 1939 should have just joined the Peace Corps and wouldn't have had to kill those nasty Germans.
the nazi party (not germany, there is a difference )was a threat. sadaam wasn't and isn't. it is that simple.
An undemocratic and tyrannical Middle East that supports terrorism is the threat. Some of us are too blind to see that threat however. A pity really that you don't understand the reasons we are in Iraq. Luckily smarter men than you are in places of authority.
So . . . Germany wasn't a threat? Just the Nazi's?
Just let me know how you're going to do anything about Naziism without killing a whole lot of Germans. What a fantasy world you must live in.
dicknbush writes: "sadaam wasn't and isn't. it is that simple."
I would think that Kuwait might disagree. So would a lot of corpses that are being pulled from mass graves inside Iraq.
All of which is besides the point as Pat Tillman died in Afghanistan. His death is tragic. As are the deaths of the other servicemen and women who have given their lives so we can share our opinions like we do now.
As a person who spent 9 years in uniform, and have many friends still in and over there, I recognize the potential danger that all soldiers face. Many do not think about that when they enlist. Some do so for college money, some for no other reason than becasue they are tired of living in a trailer park somewhere, and some, like Pat Tillman, because they embrace the idea that freedom isn't free, that somebody must oftentimes pay the ultimate price, and they say to themselves that it's worth the risk.
Freedom is so precious that it must be protected and it must be distributed to those who are not free. While we cannot instill freedom to everyone, everywhere at once, we can do so now, in Iraq, and Afghanistan. We will get to the rest when/where we can.
The only issue I have in the Tillman coverage is the danger of overshadowing the deaths of the servicemen and women that died before him. To forget them would be tragic.
Very well said, Jonathan.
I did nine years myself, 1989-1998, stationed at:
Ft Leonard Wood, MO (Basic Training); Presidio of Monterey (Language School); Goodfellow AFB, TX; Augsburg, Germany; and Kunia, HI.
Any of these places familiar to you?
Kevin,
Same years for me.
Ft. Dix, NJ (Basic Training)
Ft. Devens, MA (Intelligence School)
NSA
Ft. Mclelland, AL (MP School)
Baumholder, GE
Skopje,Macedonia
Tuzla, Bosnia
Ft. Lee, VA
I've been to Augsburg. I was in GE from July 94- June 97 and did the macedonia UN mission the second half of 1995. Bosnia was all of 1996. Rough year. Thank you for your service.
Another group of folks "dUcknbush" forgets is The Kurds. I don't think there are many "Saddam Was Only Kidding" jokes going around northern Iraq. It's obvios, Tillman was willing to forgo his millions to stop Saddam, but "dUcknbush" throws away logic for free.
"Freedom is so precious that . . .it must be distributed to those who are not free."
Oh, really? Does that include reproductive freedom? The right to bear arms? The right to burn the American flag? Or just the freedom to be a puppet of the United States?
I'm sure that the Iraqis don't want that kind of freedom anyway. What the Iraqis really want is to be able to choose between McDonalds and Taco Bell. If only the Iraqi children knew what a joy is to open the Happy Meal of your choice and find your favorite Disney character inside! *sigh* I'm sure in a few years that will be a reality but it'll seem like an infinity to us, who are so accustomed to freedom.
Seriously, I'd like to know whose Constitution you are reading which mandates that the United States invade countries that aren't as perfectly democratic as we are.
It's the United States Constitution, which says that the President of the United States sets foreign policy, and that the Congress is responsible for military appropriations.
Kevin,
Nice try. Of course, I wasn't asking who sets foreign policy. I was asking where is it MANDATED (per Jonathan's post) that we "distribute freedom" to OTHER countries.
Also, the point should not be missed that "distributing freedom" to Iraq was hardly the reason given for invading Iraq in the first place. The reason given by the Administration and then echoed without investigation by our "liberal" media was that Saddam Hussein had nuclear and chemical weapons which he was ready to deploy at any moment. After it became clear that Hussein had no such weapons and was not a threat to the United States, this "other" reason was spun out to the media and to the dittoheads.
If were interested in spreading freedom to the Middle East, perhaps we could have spent some time figuring out a better way to do it. After all, there is no indication that these sorts of occupations have worked successfully in the past to bring "American style" democracy to the reason.
A horrific terrorist attack on the U.S. embassy in Jordan was narrowly averted today. Congratulations to the Jordanian intelligence officers who stopped that effort. Unfortunately, they won't be able to stop them all and there are bound to be many many more such efforts in the future as a result of our occupation of Iraq. And some of those efforts will be here in the United States. Who will you blame for those attacks? Clinton? John Kerry?
The perception of the United States among people in the Middle East is MUCH MUCH WORSE than it was before 9/11. Wake up. People in the Middle East don't want freedom "distributed" to them at gunpoint by a bunch of bible-toting hypocrites like us.
A quick correction of one paragraph in my post:
"If we were so interested in spreading freedom to the Middle East, perhaps we could have spent some time figuring out a better way to do it. After all, there is no indication that these sorts of occupations have worked successfully in the past to bring "American style" democracy to the region."
I don't know what is more interesting, the articles or the comments. People with fixed positions trying to argue themselves to be the correct one.
Some things to consider:
I have read some Iraqi bloggers. To the proverbial "T" all say, stay, but if you leave, don't come back. We are welcomed there. You just don't hear it over here.
Second, people in the Middle East NEVER liked us at all. Most people there would just like for everyone to leave everyone alone; but, and that is a big but, there are many who will stop at nothing to kill us. AS many as possible. No peace corp will stop them, no talking peace or peace marches will stop them, nothing will stop them at all. So, the U.S. which, you remember, wouldn't be in this mess at all if 9/11 hadn't happen (how come everyone conviently forgets this?) and my biggest worry would be "would you like fries with that?" not will I have to pack my bags tomorrow and go over too?
Maybe there could be a better way, there always is, but until the guys who have rabies have had their rabies shots, boots on the ground seems to be the only answer.
I think I am probably one of the few exceptions. I'm a CS major with pretty good standing who is rapidly approaching the point where I will be able to pursue a masters degree in either CS or IS from GMU or ODU in Virginia. I plan on applying for Navy OCS after college because I want to do IT work for the Navy, and given that I am a good coder, I think I can contribute something to my country.
Unlike a lot of my peers, I see more job opportunities for an IT worker in the military than outside of it. Here's the way I look at it, plain and simple.
If you know how to handle investments, you can easily make up the difference. I think that it'd do a lot of people good to give at least four years of service. IMO, you're crazy in most cases if you dismiss the possibility of military service. It's pretty good pay, great benefits and your work actually means something more than a dollar sign.
Oh yeah, Tillman reminds me of a saying I heard when I was in NJROTC my freshman year of HS (when I moved to VA, the high school I went to didn't have any JROTC availible that I could fit in my schedule). "The real heros are the ones who didn't make it back."
That always struck me as a great attitude because it humbles the people who are still alive because they didn't "make the ultimate sacrifice." I always saw it as, doing more than your share is sometimes what is needed to get the job done. The real heros are the ones who give up their lives for something bigger and better than they.
I never used the word "mandate" Frankie, you did in the last sentence of your post. I guess the fundamental difference between us is this: I work in downtown Denver and it has some pretty tall buildings in it and not a day goes by that I don't think of the possibility of some terrorist flying a plane into one of them because they have labeled me "infidel" without ever know who I was, or meeting me to determine what my beliefs are. They have arbitrarily decided that my life is not worth living and will kill me at any cost.
You can call it invasion, you can call it whatever you like. As long as it's taking place on their soil first, I'm o.k. with it. Because they will not hesitate to bring it to ours. The problem Frankie, is you've forgotten that they are out there to kill us. 9-11 is just a distant bad memory, something like an upset stomach that will be gone in the morning and until some bastard drives a truck load full of explosives through your local Wal-Mart and kills a bunch of people you really care about, you WON'T get it. Right now it's just soldiers being killed. They mean nothing to you, but let it be a family member and maybe, just maybe, you'll start to get pissed off.
there are only two human emotions which drive all others: love and fear.
the current US regime is ruling by fear adn many on this post buy into it. interesting that evengelicals want fear. don't think many will be converted.
mmmm... McHalliburton with cheese....
Jonathan said
"I never used the word "mandate" Frankie, you did in the last sentence of your post."
*sigh* Jonathan, you said that freedom "MUST be distributed to those who are not free." If you want to parse "mandated" and "must", please be my guest. Don't hurt yourself.
I'm sorry to hear that you live in constant fear of terrorists, Jonathan. That is, of course, exactly what the terrorists want to hear.
"As long as it's taking place on their soil first, I'm o.k. with it."
Great logic, Jonathan. Hey, if we obliterate EVERY other country, then we won't have any enemies! What a brilliant plan! Why don't you write a letter to George Bush.
"until some bastard drives a truck load full of explosives through your local Wal-Mart"
Where I live we don't allow Wal-Marts. You don't know anything about me.
"Right now it's just soldiers being killed. They mean nothing to you,"
Wow, now that is hubris. Jonathan, please do me a favor: go screw yourself.
"but let it be a family member and maybe, just maybe, you'll start to get pissed off."
My family members were bombed mercilessly by Saddam Hussein for years. But none of us supported this stupid war which has only INCREASED the threat of terrorist attacks in this country and in U.S. interests elsewhere.
If you could explain to me, Jonathan, how the war in Iraq (at the expense of our operations in Afghanistan, where al Qaeda was located -- remember?) has made the U.S. any safer, I'd really appreciate it.
Hey Joe
Doesn't Bush's mouthpiece, Karen Hughes, have a 17 year old son? I assume he's going to enlist and volunteer for a combat position.
When is the earliest he can do that? Has he done it already?
ken,
'Drooling fanboys with a Big Mouth and lotsa courage as long as they're anonymous on the Net, safely out of fist range while they masturbate over all the rest of us.'
what? you ahve some serious issues.
sorry to dissapoint but i'm 45 with a 9 to 5.
Actually, Al Queda is in many countries. It was the Taliban that was in Afghanistan. AQ is active in Somalia, the Sudan, Yemen, Iran, Saudi, Egypt, Morrocco, the Phillippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, India, Chechnya, and others. Now if you're advocating going after Al Queda, wherever they are, I'm with you.
How has this war on terror made the US safer? By making them play defense. By putting them on the run. By shutting down their credit lines, their ammunition suppliers, and their training camps. It's hard to plot against the Great Satan when you're having to move every twelve hours because Predator drones have it out for you.
"It's hard to plot against the Great Satan when you're having to move every twelve hours because Predator drones have it out for you."
And there came a day when humans spoke like robots, and God saw it and he said, "Shoot. I knew I should have spent more time on the brain."
Next time I visit Morocco or India, Kevin, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for those Predator Drones.
In the meantime, please continue to enjoy your status in the steadily decreasing pool of people who continue to live with you in Fantasy Land.
and those predator drones don't have to watch women and children die.
hey, they could even operate them from washton and never send troops over at all!
Welcome Big Brother! we the evangleicals welcome thee, our new God.
Hey Kevin,
Fyi --the terrorists are already in the U.S!!! Someone secure Washington State!!!
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/04/27/artwork.investigated.ap/index.html
dick:
Does your employer know how little you work during the '9 to 5'?
Hey Kevin,
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/04/27/nuclear.safety.ap/index.html
Please enjoy this link which shows what a great job we are doing with security here in the U.S. under watchful eye of the Chimperor. Too bad we don't have more money. Where did that money go? Oh yeah -- to Iraq, so we could create a spawning ground for future terrorists. Cheers!
Gee, I guess I'm not reading the news. What big terrorist attacks have happened on US soil since 9/11?
Seriously, is it just a friggin' coincidence? Most of the Taliban is DEAD!!!! The Hussein Money-for-Suicide-Bombing program is DEAD!!! Al Queda is LOSING!!! Where are all the 'victories' that the Muslim extremists are supposedly scoring outside of my "fantasy" world? Where are the blown up bridges they promised? Where are all the chemical attacks? Where are the "mother of all attacks" attacks, that keep you guys up at night, chewing your nails down to the nubs??
Face it. The economy is strong. The US military has faced down two dictatorships, and have turned around many others, just by showing up and doing their jobs, which we were begging to do for eight years of Lewinsky's boyfriend.
Yes, we're safer today than we were last year, and the year before that, and before that. Unfortunately for you, we're only getting stronger, and more bold. Within five years, the Saudis will have either crushed Wahhibiism once and for all, or will have turned to us to do it. The Iranians will have overthrown their Mullahs. Israel will have a wall running the length of the West Bank, keeping out a great many riffraff with Semtex around their waists. Iraq will have a functioning, if bumpy, democracy. And you'll STILL be thinking the sky is falling.
Advice: load up on stocks, and go bullish. Great days are here, and are here to stay.
the guy deserves his own greek epic.
"Where are the "mother of all attacks" attacks, that keep you guys up at night, chewing your nails down to the nubs??"
Who is "you guys" Kevin? You are the one who was saying you are afraid a plane is going to crash into a tall building in Denver. I sleep well at night.
"Face it. The economy is strong. The US military has faced down two dictatorships, and have turned around many others, just by showing up and doing their jobs ...."
God bless America! Cue up the sunshine folks! Get the fog machine started! Strings, lots of strings! Let's hear those trumpets now!
"Yes, we're safer today than we were last year, and the year before that, and before that. Unfortunately for you, we're only getting stronger, and more bold."
Big Macs only 99 cents! Everyone gather round, buy one, get one free!
"Within five years, the Saudis will have either crushed Wahhibiism once and for all, or will have turned to us to do it. The Iranians will have overthrown their Mullahs. Israel will have a wall running the length of the West Bank, keeping out a great many riffraff with Semtex around their waists. Iraq will have a functioning, if bumpy, democracy.."
Please tell Tommy Chong that whatever he sold you, I want some too.
I will be sharing this post with others in the blogosphere because it shows very well the lengths Bush apologists will go to defend their Dear Leader.
"Advice: load up on stocks, and go bullish."
Yeah. You do that.
I'm doing that--up 85% over last fourteen months.
And, I'm not a Bush "apologist". I'm a Bush supporter, when he's right. But as far as this war goes, babe, there's nothing to apologize for.
So what are your hot stock picks Kevin?