History Forum / General / British History / April 2004

The University of Massachusetts in Amherst has long been known as a
bastion of the Angry Left and the Leftover Left.

There is quite a bit of overlap between those two groups.  U. Mass is
often described as having a Marxist History Department.

But their President, a fellow named Jack Wilson, has proven to be a
STALWART on at least ONE important issue ---- this one:
------------------------------

"UMass president rips student column on Tillman"

Posted: Thursday April 29, 2004 2:13PM; Updated: Thursday April 29, 2004
4:10PM

"AMHERST, Mass. (AP) -- A University of Massachusetts graduate student
who wrote a campus newspaper column saying former NFL player Pat Tillman
was not a hero for being killed while fighting in Afghanistan was
sharply criticized Thursday by the school's president.

UMass president Jack Wilson issued a statement saying Rene Gonzalez'
comments in The Daily Collegian "are a disgusting, arrogant and
intellectually immature attack on a human being who died in service to
his country." ******

Quite! ---- DSH

In his column, which ran Wednesday on the opinion page and was posted on
the newspaper's Web site, Gonzalez called the former Arizona Cardinals
safety a "G.I. Joe guy who got what was coming to him."

"That was not heroism," Gonzalez wrote.  "It was prophetic idiocy."

His column also criticizes America's military response to the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks.

Tillman, the San Jose, Calif., native who gave up his NFL career to join
the Army Rangers in 2002, was killed in combat April 22 in Afghanistan.

While recognizing Gonzalez' right to free speech, Wilson said the
student owes Tillman a "debt of gratitude," and said he should apologize
to Tillman's friends and family.

Gonzalez did not respond to telephone and e-mail messages left Thursday
by The Associated Press."
--------------------------------

President Jack Wilson is correct on all counts.

Gonzalez's column is indeed "disgusting, arrogant and intellectually
immature."

Gonzalez has a perfect right to write errant rubbish -- and we have a
perfect right to ridicule and excoriate him for it.

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Vires et Honor
---------------

Here is what the scurrilous little gutter-snipe U. Mass grad student
wrote:

------Cordon Sanitaire------------

"Pat Tillman is not a hero: He got what was coming to him"

By Rene Gonzalez
April 28, 2004

"When the death of Pat Tillman occurred, I turned to my friend who was
watching the news with me and said, "How much you want to bet they start
talking about him as a 'hero' in about two hours?"  Of course, my friend
did not want to make that bet.  He'd lose.  In this self-critical
incapable nation, nothing but a knee-jerk "He's a hero" response is to
be expected.

I've been mystified at the absolute nonsense of being in "awe" of
Tillman's "sacrifice" that has been the American response.  Mystified,
but not surprised.  True, it's not everyday that you forgo a $3.6
million contract for joining the military.  And, not just the regular
army, but the elite Army Rangers.  You know he was a real Rambo, who
wanted to be in the "real" thick of things.  I could tell he was that
type of macho guy, from his scowling, beefy face on the CNN pictures.

Well, he got his wish.  Even Rambo got shot in the third movie, but in
real life, you die as a result of being shot.  They should call Pat
Tillman's army life "Rambo 4: Rambo Attempts to Strike Back at His
Former Rambo 3 Taliban Friends, and Gets Killed."

But, does that make him a hero?  I guess it's a matter of perspective.

For people in the United States, who seem to be unable to admit the
stupidity of both the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars, such a trade-off in
life standards (if not expectancy) is nothing short of heroic.

Obviously, the man must be made of "stronger stuff" to have had decided
to "serve" his country rather than take from it.  It's the old JFK
exhortation to citizen service to the nation, and it seems to strike an
emotional chord.  So, it's understandable why Americans automatically
knee-jerk into hero worship.

However, in my neighborhood in Puerto Rico, Tillman would have been
called a "pendejo," an idiot.

Tillman, in the absurd belief that he was defending or serving his
all-powerful country from a seventh-rate, Third World nation devastated
by the previous conflicts it had endured, decided to give up a
comfortable life to place himself in a combat situation that cost him
his life.  This was not "Ramon or Tyrone," who joined the military out
of financial necessity, or to have a chance at education.  This was a
"G.I. Joe" guy who got what was coming to him.  That was not heroism, it
was prophetic idiocy.

Tillman, probably acting out his nationalist-patriotic fantasies forged
in years of exposure to Clint Eastwood and Rambo movies, decided to
insert himself into a conflict he didn't need to insert himself into.

It wasn't like he was defending the East coast from an invasion of a
foreign power.  THAT would have been heroic and laudable.  What he did
was make himself useful to a foreign invading army, and he paid for it.
It's hard to say I have any sympathy for his death because I don't feel
like his "service" was necessary.  He wasn't defending me, nor was he
defending the Afghani people.  He was acting out his macho, patriotic
crap and I guess someone with a bigger gun did him in.

Perhaps it's the old, dreamy American thought process that forces them
to put sports greats and "larger than life" sacrificial lambs on the
pedestal of heroism, no matter what they've done.  After all, the
American nation has no other role to play but to be the cheerleaders of
the home team; a sad role to have to play during conflicts that suffer
from severe legitimacy and credibility problems.

Matters are a little clearer for those living outside the American
borders.

Tillman got himself killed in a country other than his own without
having been forced to go over to that country to kill its people.

After all, whether we like them or not, the Taliban is more Afghani than
we are.  Their resistance is more legitimate than our invasion,
regardless of the fact that our social values are probably more
enlightened than theirs.  For that, he shouldn't be hailed as a hero, he
should be used as a poster boy for the dangerous consequences of too
much "America is #1," frat boy, propaganda bull.

It might just make a regular man irrationally drop $3.6 million to go
fight in a conflict that was anything but "self- defense." The same
could be said of the unusual belief of 50 percent of the American nation
that thinks Saddam Hussein was behind Sept. 11.  One must indeed stand
in awe of the amazing success of the American propaganda machine.  It
works wonders.

Al-Qaeda won't be defeated in Afghanistan, even if we did kill all their
operatives there.  Only through careful and logical changing of the
underlying conditions that allow for the ideology to foster will
Al-Qaeda be defeated.  Ask the Israelis if 50 years of blunt force have
eradicated the Palestinian resistance.  For that reason, Tillman's
service, along with that of thousands of American soldiers, has been
wrongly utilized.

He did die in vain, because in the years to come, we will realize the
irrationality of the War on Terror and the American reaction to Sept.
11.  The sad part is that we won't realize it before we send more people
like Pat Tillman over to their deaths."

------Cordon Sanitaire------------

John Kerry just *might* be able to eke out his 2004 "Sister-Souljah
Moment" by putting this Gonzalez pogue in his place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Souljah_moment

But will Kerry have the courage and the cojones to do it?

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Vires et Honor