So I’m still reading the Pat Tillman book. Its a good book. Interesting stuff all through it. Stuff on the Taliban, and Friendly Fire mainly. Some harrowing accounts of what it was like for American Marines to be bombed and strafed by American Warthog planes, while they were also being shot at by Iraqi soldiers.
The Jessica Lynch propaganda story was connected to some friendly-fire non-stories. Lynch story was played up and managed to replace media interest in Marines getting blown apart by other Marines in ‘friendly fire’ episodes.
Anyway, Tillman was interesting. He was a bit of an intellectual of sorts. Always had a book. He and his brother went into the Army together and served together and read books together. When Tillman signed up for the Army he didnt know Bush was going to veer away from Afghanistan and attack Iraq. Tillman served in Iraq and Afghanistan where he was killed by friendly fire. Tillman thought the war in Iraq was bullshit, but he thought war in Afghanistan might be justified.
Anyway, I smiled when i came across this. I wasn’t expecting this:
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“…In any case, after Pat and Kevin came home from Baghdad, and graduated from Ranger School, Marie remembers…..
…..they were to deploy in Afghanistan…….he talked about how when he got home from Afghanistan it was going to be time to get back into shape for football again. But returning to the NFL was not the only thing on Pat’s agenda after his military service was over. He was also looking forward to having a tete-a-tete with Noam Chomsky, a meeting that Pat had prevailed upon Reka Cseresnyes, his old college study partner from Budapest, to arrange……from the early days of their friendship Cseresnyes and Tillman would recommend books for each other to read, she says, and ‘probably around 2000 we started reading Chomsky and debating his ideas. His perspective on things was so different than the mainstream media, and that appealed to Pat.’…
….for example when Chomsky opined in a radio interview, ‘If the American population had the slightest idea of what is being done in their name, they would be utterly appalled,’ it was perfectly aligned with Tillman’s own sense of outrage over what he’d witnessed in Iraq. Pat admired both Chomsky’s intellectual courage and his straightforward unembellished turns of phrase.
In 2003, Ceresnyes and her husband moved to Boston…pursue a graduate degree at M.I.T. where Chomsky happened to be on the faculty……”I’d like to talk to Chomsky!, Pat blurted. Reka arrange something! He’s just down the street, I’d like to talk to him.”
‘I was, like why not?’, Ceresnyes says. Out of the blue she emailed Chomsky with an article about Tillman attached…….to Ceresnyes surprise within a matter of hours she received a reply from Chomsky indicating he was open to the idea and urging Pat to send him an email…..”
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Tillman planned on meeting with Noam after he got back from Afghanistan. Course he never made it back.
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