BBKristopher.com

On the 28th, a The Daily Collegian published on OpEd from UMass student Rene Gonzalez. The full text can be found here (google cache here), but the relevant points are apparently:

1). Pat Tillman "was a 'G.I. Joe' guy who got what was coming to him.

2). That the U.S. is bad and evil for picking on Afghanistan, despite the fact that the Afgan government was giving aid and comfort to persons responsible for the deaths of 5000+ Americans on September 11, 2001.

3). That Tillman, who gave up a 3.5 Million Dollar contract to play some sport or other professionally in order to enlist is less deserving of respect than some poor smuck who enlisted to get the G. I. Bill.

Well, it's made quite a stir and gained national media attention in such places as the Washington Dispatch and Boston.com News.

Frankly, I think you can guess my opinion of Rene Gonzalez from the title of this post.

But let's look at why, shall we?

Now, I have my own problems with how Tillman's death is being covered. It's not because I have anything against him. I didn't know who he was, don't know what sport he played, and honestly, still don't. Nor do I care. Why I'm upset is, Pat Tillman is one man, and he is being lauded as a hero. I can agree with that. He is a hero. But then, these are hero's too...

Why aren't their deaths making the news for days on end?

The answer, of course, is they weren't already famous.

I understand it. I hate it, but I understand it.

Being a soldier is a lousy job. The hours suck, the pay is crap, any self respecting OSHA inspector would shit himself at the workplace hazards, and to top it all off, not only are people frequently trying to kill you, if your coworkers aren't careful, you get to discover just how unfriendly friendly fire really is.

But the men and women in those caskets did it. They did it every day until it finally killed them. Some of them did it for money. Some of them did it to better themselves. Some of them did it for love of country. Some of them did it to defend their loved ones. Some of them just did it (Nike would be proud).

Is the war in Afganistan just? Is the war in Iraq just?

For our purposes here today, it don't matter one bit.

You see, a soldier doesn't get to decide. A soldier is ordered to fight. He or she is told where to go, who the enemy is and how the enemy may be engaged. Then he/she does his/her duty.

In the field, the soldier will behave with or without honor. In the field, the individual soldier may commit crimes of war. In the field, the soldier may follow orders he/she knows to be illegal.

But by and large, our soldiers don't. By and large, our soldiers are honorable men and women. Modern American soldiers are probably the best behaved army in the world. By and large, American soldiers are men and women of honor, else we would not be so shocked when they do commit crimes of war.

My old pal Billy said it best in Henry V. "... if the cause be not just, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make,"

The justice of the wars in Iraq and Afganistan are a matter for the President, his administration, and the American People as a whole to decide between them. I expect a decision sometime in November, though I doubt consensus will truly be reached within our lifetime.

But Pat Tillman and the men and women in those boxes? The other soldiers around the world doing their duty? They are heroes. They are heroes because they did a lousy job, and gave their lives in the doing. They are heroes because they chose to put on the uniform, regardless of the reason. They are heroes because they did their duty, because the took an oath and kept faith with it, because when ordered to, they stood.

Call the ground Thermopylae, call it Wake Island, call it Gethsemane.

But faithful to our laws, on that ground, they fell.

But most of all, what makes them heroes is that they weren't compelled to put on the uniform. They chose it. They chose to take the chance that they would be the ones called on to shed their blood.

Some of them died afraid. Some of them died in pain. Some of them never knew they were dead until it was already over. But whether you believe the war is just or not, never doubt choosing to put on that uniform is the act of a hero.

Now, back to Rene Gonzalez. In his OpEd, he says, "However, in my neighborhood in Puerto Rico, Tillman would have been called a 'pendejo,' an idiot." because he, "...decided to give up a comfortable life to place himself in a combat situation that cost him his life."

Funny, isn't it. The very thing I find admirable about Tillman is the very that that, in Gonzalez mind, makes him an "idiot."

But to the real question. What did Gonzalez do wrong?

Simple. He directed his vitrol at someone who was, by any measure, trying to do the right thing. He directed it at a man who made an enormous sacrifice in order to serve his fellow Americans, and in doing so, he denigrates all the finest things about us as a nation and a people.

I guess the only thing left to say is, I disagree with what Rene Gonzalez has to say, but I will defend to the death his right to say it.

I'd also point out that Pat Tillman and thousands upon thousands of other Americans have already done exactly that.