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In the days since I first read this story, there’s been a number of articles written that leverage Tillman’s parents’ statements to fit a larger argument against government secrecy. And while secrecy is part of this case, the larger problem centers on this instinctive urge to tell a lie, and how easy and often it seems to happen within the Bush administration. What was the justification for resorting to lies in the case of Pat Tillman’s death?

At the heart of any answer to the question ‘why’ is the apparent sense of entitlement President Bush has allowed to dictate his actions since well before his political career was first born. This sickness allows a religious man like Bush to feel deserving of the luxury, the right to more than just Tillman’s life, but all the political capital that could be squeezed from lying about his death. While it is crystal clear that Bush had no right to invent a legacy, his goal had nothing to do with Pat Tillman at all, but was purely based in selfishness.

Tillman’s celebrity was seen as merely a gift to our President, rather than a testament to the man himself. He was and should represent forever a lasting memory of selflessness in the face of mortal danger that all of us can draw courage and pride from. The sacrifice that was made is one that baffles the mind, especially within a culture that too often attaches the ‘hero’ label to anything that could possibly equal a point or two in the ratings. And his death caused us all to pause, and realize that our enjoyment of life and all America has to offer us is less of a right than it is a privilege.

He was killed by friendly fire, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong or dirty about that. Anyone who knows a thing about combat understands that on the battlefield, tragedies are easy to come by. The circumstances surrounding ‘how’ he died were inconsequential to me and likely would have been to his family or anyone else. Because the point of all this, and what we should be teaching our children, is not how he died but instead the fact that he volunteered in the first place. That was and still is the most heroic thing Pat Tillman could have done.

It’s this focus on the details and the need for a ‘story’ to tack onto his death that angers me more than anything. What was our President saying with all of this? That the manner in which he perished would have diminished the sense of what he sacrificed for his country? I can’t imagine what else he must have thought, and that it happened amidst an election, where his opponent John Kerry was facing similar distortions of his own service, paints an even clearer picture of what President Bush and his friends are all about.

The sacrifice one makes in enlisting is something that matters very little to him and others in his administration. Why? They never came close to exhibiting such courage themselves. So the focus must naturally shift from that sacrifice and focus instead on what happened afterwards. And it was this fundamental lack of understanding that prompted the lies that followed. Dying because of friendly fire wasn’t good enough for President Bush or the people who talked him into acting on such a despicable notion.

I’m sickened by this as I too have felt that internal sorrow with rifle in hand on the other side of the world, the knowledge that my government doesn’t appreciate me or anyone around me, but will exploit what we do for their own purposes any chance they get. When the embassies in Africa were blown up by Osama Bin Laden, we were all focused on Headline News and preparing ourselves mentally for what followed. And as I was working a Christmas Day 24-hour guard rotation at the front gate of our post in Vilseck, Germany – the politicians were shouting ‘No War For Monica’.

And there you have the truth of where the disconnect lies when it comes to our military and our government. The politicians don’t see the courage they talk of so often, but only political opportunity. They didn’t care in the least that Americans died needlessly in Africa no more than they cared to present a truthful account of Tillman’s death and how the circumstances diminished nothing about his sacrifice. The truth of his death wasn’t worth enough to them, so they simply made up a story that qualified within their morbid rationale of what’s acceptably ‘heroic’.

To them a soldier’s sacrifice only equals an opportunity to get votes and criticize opponents, but nothing more. Pat Tillman’s sacrifice will always mean something to me, as it will mean something to every American. I just wish it meant something more to President Bush than a political opportunity. By lying about it, they raped our perception of what’s truly important here, and planted a seed of ignorance that incorrectly tells us that how he died was somehow dishonorable when it wasn’t. His family and our country deserved better.

”Pat had high ideals about the country; that’s why he did what he did,” Mary Tillman said in her first lengthy interview since her son’s death. ”The military let him down. The administration let him down. It was a sign of disrespect. The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting.”