At some point I started going back to look at some old posts and adding the label "embarrassing archives." In the spirit of self-examination and personal growth and admitting my mistakes, I'll highlight this recent addition to my embarrassing archives. This is probably one of the most embarrassing moments of my brief fling with mainstream political liberalism. That was posted in April of 2007, but by a year later I had figured things out a bit better.
Now I'll say this. As far as paid killers go, it might be that Tillman was better than most. He seemed to value knowledge and was even willing to skeptically examine the righteousness of the cause he had given up quite a lot to fight for. That does take courage. (Hell, if he had lived he might have even come to realize that both wars were "fucking illegal" and be an active protester.) And the way his death was lied about is of course disgraceful.
But men who go fight wars of aggression aren't heroes, even if their personal character away from the battlefield is admirable, and even if they do things on a battlefield that require a certain kind of bravery, and even if they fight and die for something they believe in very strongly. Tillman could have done a lot of great things with his life (and I'm not talking about football) but he threw his life away by choosing to go fight an unjust war. I feel very sorry for him and his family on a personal human level, but I'm no longer willing to glorify his life or death. He wasn't a hero; he was a sucker.
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