We went to a talk last night by Jon Krakauer, author of three best sellers, Into Thin Air, Into the Wild, and Under the Banner of Heaven. Unknown to me, Krakauer is a Boulder resident. He will surely invite us over once he learns that a blogger has moved to his town. If not, we’ll have him over, right after David Barsamian, from whom we also expect a call.
Krakauer’s latest book is “Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman“. It looks interesting, and as with any story involving the Pentagon, he found much, much more to that story than has been told. There are lies, lies about the lies, and lies about the lies about the lies, and military men who know that their careers are over if they say anything that is true. It will be a fun book, I’m sure, and just as interesting when it comes out in paperback as it is right now.
Krakauer talked quite a bit about the phenomenon known as “friendly fire”, which killed Pat Tillman. He says it is far more common than we realize, and that the impulse to cover it up as natural as any other lying instinct within the military. It is automatic and instinctual, from the bottom to the top. On the day that Tillman was killed, the only person who did not know it was friendly fire was his brother, Kevin, a member of the platoon, and kept in the dark.
What got my attention most of all was Krakauer’s brief mention that Tillman was somehow involved in the Jessica Lynch affair in Iraq. This falls right in with my belief that everything we see in politics and war is a lie. Telling the truth can be fatal, even saying something offhand that is true can end a political career.
(Side note – Mitt Romney’s honorable father, George Romney, was considered the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 when he went to Vietnam, and came back and said something that was true – “When I came back from Vietnam [in November of 1965], I’d just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get.” Exit political career, stage left. Since that time, no American politician has ever said anything true.)
Nothing is true in politics, and I kicked myself last night after I realized I had believed a story that was a classic lie – a can of whipped cream sprayed on a turd of truth. During the invasion of Iraq, seventeen marines had died in friendly fire in one incident – a PR disaster. The Pentagon searched around for a cover story, a diversion for the leashed media, some raw meat to throw them to keep them away from a real story.
The result: The Ballad of Jessica Lynch.
P.S.: We paid $15 each for tickets, and books were on sale there – the entire proceeds for the night go to a group called Veterans Helping Veterans Now, a truly grassroots group that started when a Vietnam combat Marine vet reached out to help an Iraq War vet who had been jailed on his second DUI charge. In addition to donating the entire proceeds, Krakauer is matching dollar for dollar.
Piece of Mindful 