They burned Tillman's clothes after he died, to cover up that it was friendly fire that killed him. There have been five investigations into his death, and some of the officers central to the cover up have been...promoted, of course. One is even a general now. I doubt most people in AZ and the football world know the details we do, and that makes me sad, because they'll get suckered again and again. Romantic fables are better recruiting tools than ugly, messy truth.

Much has been said on how our military is broken, and one part of that includes how the decent people in it have been chewed up, killed, driven out or passed over for deserved promotions, and/or just plain driven insane by PTSD and related illnesses. Some time ago, I had a conversation with Colin Powell's former chief of staff, Col. Tony Wilkerson, and he stressed to me that our military has been broken and ruined by Republican policies. I think many decent current and former officers would agree, not to mention the grunts who have suffered the greatest these last six years. This is a tragedy on both the personal level, and it will have great meaning in our near future. An empire is doomed to collapse if its armed forces are rotted to the core.

This story depletes my energy to write, because it stands as a simile for the wars and occupations of this administration. Everything about it is wrong. It seems to me that in every war or occupation since WWII, we abuse our military and corrupt it more, and each new generation of vets that are created are exposed to more madness and horror. Once, I would've argued that we should always stand ready to apply our military might around the globe in the name of stopping genocide or terror, but now I cannot say this. America needs to take a break from the global military stage, and heal itself and rest our forces. I wonder how long it will take our leadership to recognize this, if it will at all.