Couldn't have said it better myself and its exactly how I feel about this.

S!

I agree with this though, I would like to restate sentence number two with "It's punctuated by pointless deaths and misery."

There are many ways to express oneself through words. And if one's an experienced author I'd bet there more than a dozen ways to restate "didn't mean anything." in reference to someone's death. Unless, he meant it to spark some sort of controversy to gain publicity.

It's just my surmise but it feels like there could be a valid message the author is trying to convey but it got cluttered with such lack of finesse or class.

I don't know Pat tillman till this thread but the quote below piqued my interest.



Kinda weird though, saying someone's death means nothing and you get some info that the guy's family was behind the book? My search-fu was not enough to dig up Pat's immediate family's involvement with the book but I did came across Pat's girlfriend being responsible for the author's access to Pat's journals.

And d*mn, I came up with a ton of controversies to wade into, from his mother's interviews, and books... to the cover ups to the... hearings to the...

So much issues and controversies the book potentially covers and the article's summary of all these is "Krakauer Says Pat Tillman's Death 'Didn't Mean Anything'"? WTF?

I get what you're saying, but I think it's important to look at this quote from Krakauer in the context of the original WSJ interview.



While I think Krakauer could have articulated it better, I take it to mean that Tillman made an obviously selfless decision to turn from a very lucrative career as a professional athlete. And despite his sacrifices, the tragic circumstances of his death, and the sacrifices of everyone else in the ISAF coalition - soldiers, diplomats, NGOs, all of them - a look at Afghanistan today suggests that not much has changed.

Looking at the corruption in the Karzai government and the ANP, the near-exponential growth in the rate of coalition combat deaths, the legalization of rape earlier this summer, and the ridiculously low turnout in last month's sham of an election, it's difficult to challenge that.

I consider Pat Tillman a hero. I only have 2 men that have earned that title. Him and Chuck Yeager.

His is the only football jersey I have ever worn besides my own.

Now, I am going to reserve my final judgment until after I read this book (my mother in law bought it, I am going to borrow it from her) but, I get the feeling that this man respects pat Tillman at least as much as I do.

I think he meant that Pat deserved better considering how selfless he was. It is a shame he lost his life to his own troops. If he had to die, he deserved the glory of taking some of the enemy out in the fight that took his life.

At least that is how I feel about it. Friendly fire is always a terrible thing but, when you consider how selfless Pat was, it makes it all the more terrible that his life was "wasted" in a sense.

As Patton said, you don't win wars by dying for your country. Well, you certainly don't win them by falling to your own troops fire. You win them by killing your enemy. Pat left football to fight in a war he believed in.

So, in the grand scheme of things, did his death matter? Of course it did. Pat became yet another of the long list of heroes that have laid their lives down for this country.

However, in terms of the fight against AQ, no... the loss of his life was a waste.

He deserved better.

Every war death is meaningless, they are numbers to be acounted for, the actions and will behind the men who fall is not.

Can anyone enlight me on the multimillion dolar ? are Us Rangers millionaries ?

Pat was a professional athlete and walked away from millions of dollars to become an enlisted soldier because of 9/11.

Hey Marshall... back me up here...


Dude... you KNOW you are wrong when you have ME quoting the bible...


"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."

Tillman was also not your typical rah rah rah type- originally from the liberal San Francisco Bay Area, he apparently expressed beliefs not in line with the populism at that time either, particularly as it concerned the Iraq war.

wow, talk about taken out of context. If you saw his interview on the Daily Show he couldn't praise the guy enough. http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/250803/wed-september-30-2009-jon-krakauer

Maybe people should read the whole book instead of making assumptions from single paragraphs