President Obama Betrays Tillman Family (Again) by Appointing Gen. McChrystal & CNAS to Run "Joining Forces" Program

Just a couple weeks before the 7th anniversary of Pat Tillman’s friendly-fire death on April 22, 2004, the Tillman family isn’t happy with yet another slap in their face by President Obama’s appointment of Gen. Stanley McChrystal as advisor of the new program “Joining Forces.”

Mary Tillman was critical of President Obama’s 2009 nomination of Gen. McChrystal and the bipartisan Congressional failure to hold him accountable for his central role in the Army’s cover-up of Pat Tillman’s friendly fire death. In May 2004, Gen. McChrystal supervised the writing of Pat Tillman’s fraudulent Silver Star and the cover-up of his friendly-fire death by the Ranger RGT officers. Over the next five years, the ensuing Army & Congressional “investigations” were part of the bi-partisan whitewash which “exonerated” Gen. McChrystal and others involved of wrong-doing.

Besides the Bush Administration, some of the more prominent figures involved in the whitewash include: Senator McCain, Senator Webb, Senator Levin, Congressman Waxman, President Obama, NYT reporter Thom Shanker, Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and CNAS’s Andrew Exum.

To learn more, I’d suggest Narda Zacchino's post http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/what_stanley_mcchrystal_did_to_pat_tillmans_family_20110413/ and Mary Tillman’s book “Boots on the Ground by Dusk” (revised paperback edition with a new forward at blurb.com), Jon Krakauer’s paperback edition “Where Men Win Glory” (although a flawed bio, it has details on McChrystal’s role in the Army’s cover-up), the fine documentary “The Tillman Story,” and my Feral Firefighter blog at http://www.feralfirefighter.blogspot.com

Last June, I posted “The Emperor’s General” which discussed President Obama’s role in the whitewash of Gen. McChrystal. Last August, I posted “The [Untold] Tillman Story” which discussed how a bi-partisan Congressional effort shielded McChrystal from accountability (and also the role of NYT reporter Thom Shanker and CNAS’s Andrew Exum).

Ironically, although Center for a New American Security (CNAS) will run the “Joining Forces” program, their Fellow Andrew Exum contributed to McChrystal’s whitewash with his biased book review of Jon Krakauer’s book for the Washington Post (and failed to fully disclose his professional and personal conflicts of interests with McChrystal).

And here's an excerpt from his June 2, 2009 post "Confirm Him" blogging as Abu Mugawama (cnas.org): “The bottom line is, nothing is ever going to heal the wounds inflicted on the Tillman Family … And while I have nothing but respect for the Tillman Family…, their personal grief should not be a veto on the nomination of the man [Gen. Stanley McChrystal] … These are serious questions and are more important than either the death of Pat Tillman or the alleged abuse of detainees.”

Considering their past betrayal of the Tillman family, it appears that Gen. McChrystal and CNAS are a poor choice to run the “Joining Forces” program to take care of our military veterans and their families.

This is not a betrayal to the Tillman family or anyone else. Since when do people get punished eternally for their mistakes / transgressions? General McChrystal made some poor choices. He paid the price for those choices, and that is all in the past now. At some point he must be allowed to move on and move forward. As a Special Operations commander, he knows full well the extremes of the strains that can be placed on the military member and their family. I think he is a fine choice and should be given a chance to execute the duties of his new office without bias towards past mistakes.