Tangled Web: Author Accuses Gen. McChrystal Of Lying About Tillman Death

Talk about inconvenient timing. Pat Tillman is a spectre that continues to haunt both the Bush administration and the U.S. military. Short recap: Tillman, a former professional football player, famously left a promising career in the NFL shortly after 9/11 to join the army, and was killed while on tour in Afghanistan in 2004. There has been much controversy surrounding his death in the intervening years; initially the military announced Tillman had been killed whilst under attack and he was subsequently awarded a Purple Heart, and the Silver Star and the Bush administration a great PR coup. Later it was divulged that Tillman had actually died in a friendly fire incident and that the army knew this at the time but chose to award Tillman the Purple Heart anyway (cue multiple propaganda accusations). Just days after his death General Stanley McChrystal (yes that same McChrystal) approved a Silver Star citation, which included an account of Tillman’s death including the phrase “in the line of devastating enemy fire,” the very next day he reportedly sent a memo to senior government members warning that Tillman might actually have been killed by friendly fire. Which brings us to now.

Author Jon Krakauer has penned a new book about Tillman and was on Meet the Press over the weekend discussing McChrystal’s role in the initial cover up. Krakauer says that McChrystal knew Tillman’s death was from friendly fire almost immediately and to claim that he didn’t is “preposterous” and “unbelievable.” McChrystal of course is the general who has recently been put in charge of the U.S. military in Afghanistan and subsequently called for an increase in troops or a complete withdrawal, a controversial assessment President Obama is still contemplating. This is not probably not going to help matters.