Tillman, Lynch and "Propaganda"

Those who serve our country deserve not only our respect but also our gratitude, for it is a profession that entails the potential loss of one's life in the protection of our nation and the advancement of our national goals. However, the circus that occured yesterday on Capitol Hill regarding Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch is not about finding the truth or about finding out why two soldiers' stories were exploited by the military for public relations purposes, it was about scoring political points against an Administration that attempted to score political points with the stories.

I don't think anyone seriously believes that the military does not use public relations spinning to weave a good story about the courage, skill and fortitude of its soldiers. After all, we need to continue to recruit soldiers to undertake a hazardous mission. Nor do I think anyone truly believes that Pat Tillman was not killed by friendly fire or that Jessica Lynch was made out to be something more than she really was, a soldier wounded in the line of duty and rescued. By her own admission, Lynch is not some "little girl Rambo." Did the military spin the stories of Lynch and Tillman? Yes and I am not particularly happy about it, but it is understandable.

However, what transpired yesterday was not truth finding, for we already know the truth. What happened yesterday is nothing more than another attempt to deride an Administration that, while making missteps, has tried to protect this country.

The crusade of Kevin Tillman and his mother to find out why the death of their brother and son was improperly reported is understandable, but is this really the kind of witch hunt this Congress needs to be involved in? The Bush Administration has proven itself time and again of making bad judgments when it comes to bad news. Do we really need to capitalize on this family's grief and tragedy to make the point again? What will really be accomplished? Rep. Henry Waxman pledged yesterday to get answers to what the Pentagon knew and what the White House knew and when about Tillman's death. The answer may be "nothing" and that is an answer that won't wash with Waxman, so hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars will be spent on an investigation that will not yeild anything new.

Yes, the Pentagon exploited Tillman and Lynch, making them into heroes on a scale that is not accurate. That is not to say that they are not heroes, for they are, but rather they are ordinary heroes. Now the Democrats want to make them in to martyrs, for a cause far less ignoble than hero worship--political grandstanding.

Make no mistake about it, what Henry Waxman and the Democratic leadership are doing is grandstanding and nothing more. They seek to bask in the light of the media and in the stories of Tillman and Lynch to further a political agenda. If what the Pentagon did with these soldiers is wrong, what the Democrats are doing is dispicable.