Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer

Where Men Win Glory the Odyssey of Pat Tillman

By Jon Krakauer

I have recently read Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer. I started taking notes to get background information on why we are in the Middle East today. Little did I know it would take this many pages to understand the corrupt, backhanded, shifty ways of every nation involved in this situation. I’m stunned, shocked, confused, angry, and appalled at the lengths the government, as well as others, will go to control and lie about virtually anything. To fully understand the entire book (Since this is just mostly my notes and comments toward the book) I have provided an overview to skim through.

The overview from Amazon.com – “In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the United States Army. He was deeply troubled by 9/11, and he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in southeastern Afghanistan.
Though obvious to most of the two dozen soldiers on the scene that a ranger in Tillman’s own platoon had fired the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered to keep this information from Tillman’s wife, other family members, and the American public for five weeks following his death. During this time, President Bush repeatedly invoked Tillman’s name to promote his administration’s foreign policy. Long after Tillman’s nationally televised memorial service, the Army grudgingly notified his closest relatives that he had “probably” been killed by friendly fire while it continued to dissemble about the details of his death and who was responsible.
In Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer draws on Tillman’s journals and letters, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and extensive research on the ground in Afghanistan to render an intricate mosaic of this driven, complex, and uncommonly compelling figure as well as the definitive account of the events and actions that led to his death. Before he enlisted in the army, Tillman was familiar to sports aficionados as an undersized, overachieving Arizona Cardinals safety whose virtuosity in the defensive backfield was spellbinding. With his shoulder-length hair, outspoken views, and boundless intellectual curiosity, Tillman was considered a maverick. America was fascinated when he traded the bright lights and riches of the NFL for boot camp and a buzz cut. Sent first to Iraq—a war he would openly declare was “illegal as hell” —and eventually to Afghanistan, Tillman was driven by complicated, emotionally charged, sometimes contradictory notions of duty, honor, justice, patriotism, and masculine pride, and he was determined to serve his entire three-year commitment. But on April 22, 2004, his life would end in a barrage of bullets fired by his fellow soldiers.
Krakauer chronicles Tillman’s riveting, tragic odyssey in engrossing detail highlighting his remarkable character and personality while closely examining the murky, heartbreaking circumstances of his death. Infused with the power and authenticity readers have come to expect from Krakauer’s storytelling, Where Men Win Glory exposes shattering truths about men and war. “

Crazy right?

Also, the revised edition of this book which came out in 2010, (The first version came out the year before), was updated to reflect new developments and includes new material obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

This Act, abbreviated, FOIA, is a federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures and grants nine exemptions to the statute. (Info via Wikipedia)

So, with all this overview and background information, here are my notes.

My comments of the book are in GREEN.

WMWG Part 1; 1989

1989 ... (Soviet – Afghan War)

·         Soviets were controlling Afghanistan.

·         U.S. didn’t want Soviets in Afghanistan – U.S. gives arms and weapons to Afghanistan to provoke Soviets.

·         Soviets fight with Afghanistan – Soviet Union finally leaves.

·         Soviets left, they put Mohammed Najibullah in control of Afghanistan as president – so he would be the Soviet Union’s puppet government in the Middle East, basically still controlling everything without physically being there. Turns into Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Najibullah was part of the secret police in Afghanistan and was a brutal person that tortured and killed many people.

·         Soviets continued to give arms to Najibullah.

·         March 1989 ... U.S. worked with Pakistan’s intelligence service – ISI – to get the Mujahedeen (the holy people that disproved of the Soviet Union’s puppet government in their Afghanistan) to attack the city of Jalalabad – A DRA (Democratic Republic of Afghanistan) stronghold.

·         Osama Bin Laden was one of the Mujahedeen commanders. So the U.S. got involved in Afghanistan and actually helped this guy? I was shocked.

·         Over the next 3 months, neither the Mujahedeen nor the DRA lost or gained any ground – became standoff with many killings.

·         Also during all this fighting, the Mujahideens were a group of people with many different backgrounds, ethnic groups, and religions. So while they were fighting the DRA, there were also many conflicts within this group of people.

·         The Mujahedeen’s withdrew from Jalalabad in July 1989.

·         During this time the Opium trade started because when the Soviets and Afghans were fighting, the Soviets wiped out all of the irrigation systems, leaving nothing able to grow but opium, so many people were getting hooked on this drug.

·         Mujahedeen’s started fighting one another to control the new drug trade – all said to be “in the name of God”.

·         And even though the Soviets had pulled out of Afghanistan, the CIA continued to provide the Afghan holy warriors with 250$ million per year as a counterbalance to the billions spent by the Soviet Union to prop up the DRA.

·         During this time Bin Laden left Afghanistan and went to Saudi Arabia because of the Mujahedeen infighting. He inspired many Arab Jihads to go to the conflict – al-Qaeda training camps instructed them in guerilla warfare.

WMWG Part 2; 1991

1991...

·         April 1991 ... Holy warriors – (Haqqani’s forces; Haqqani is one of the major Mujahedeen’s trying to fight to control Afghanistan) Overran the DRA in Khost City. Khost city was the first major Afghan urban center to come under Mujahedeen control since Soviets invasion.

·         Then, 6 months later the Soviet Union collapsed and Najibullah (the president of Afghanistan for the Soviets.) Stopped getting money and support from the Soviet Union/Russia.

·         DRA was doomed since it ran out of fuel, food etc. DRA soldiers deserted in droves to join the Mujahedeen forces. Since the Mujahedeen’s still had food and control.

·         Mujahedeen warlords wanted to try and capture Kabul City – where the seat of Najibullah’s government was.

People started calling the Mujahedeen “warlords” when they all started fighting over the drug trade.

·         Here are some Mujahedeen Warlords that’ll you’ll be hearing more of in the next couple years –

Abdul Rasul Sayyaf – He had close ties with Bin Laden

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar – received $$$ from the CIA. Close ties with Haqqani

Ahmed Shah Massoud

They come into the story at a very pivotal part later. (They all wanted to overrun Kabul and win the power)

·         Abdul Rashid Dostum (A very high commander in the DRA.) A commander that fought against the Mujahedeen forces for Najibullah – turned on them and took most of the tanks, aircraft, and 40,000 soldiers to join forces with Massoud against the DRA.

·         Najibullah recognized his regime was doomed and made a press conference to try and tell the U.S. to stop funding the ‘Forces of Jihad’ (Mujahedeen warlords). He told the U.S. we had a joint struggle (The U.S. fighting alongside with Afghanistan against this kind of fundamentalism.) “Afghanistan will be turned into a center for terrorism.” – Najibullah. So Najibullah agreed he’d step down as president and work with the United Nations to effect a peaceful transition of power.

·         After this, some officials in the George H. W. Bush’s Administration wanted the U.S. to take this opportunity to keep Jihads like Hekmatyar from taking control. But because of a Cold War mind set in the CIA – since the Soviet Union no longer existed, America no longer had any reason for still being involved in these affairs. So the U.S. washed his hands of Afghan affairs and walked away.

This upset me. The U.S. it seems always has to stick their hands into the business of other nations. It might be with good intentions, but without good leadership and the analysis of all the facts and options, I think that is where we run into problems. How could we leave a nation we’ve supported with money and weapons for the last few years? Isn’t it obvious the people of these nations would become resentful toward us, the U.S.?

·         Najibullah stepped down as Mujahedeen forces moved in on Kabul.

·         Osama bin Laden worked to help form a power-sharing cooperation between Hekmatyar and Massoud; since these were the main people vying for power. But Hekmatyar did not want to share.

WMWG Part 3; 1993

1993...

·         So Massoud and Dostum jumped on Kabul and took control.

·         During this time of all the greedy power grabbing, many people kept switching sides and fighting over Kabul.

·         February 26^th, 1993 ... Car bomb went off under the World Trade Center, it supposedly could’ve knocked the entire building down if it had been parked closer to the structure, but it was somewhat minor and only 6 people died. The car bomb was made and detonated by Ramzi Yousef, under the supervision of his uncle Khalid Sheik Mohammed – the man who was later found to be the principal architect of the 9-11 attacks.

WMWG Part 4; 1994

1994...

·         During all this commotion, the civil wars between the rival ethnic groups trying to control the drug trade was still going on. “Checkpoints” were popping up everywhere along major roads and highways. (A drug checkpoint is basically when a group of people flag your car down and force you to give them cash money, for drugs and the like.)

·         When Mohammed Omar was stopped at 5 different checkpoints on the same road, he became infuriated. Omar wanted to take down the checkpoints and stop the extortion. And this was basically how the Taliban was created. Omar went to the holy men of the surrounding villages – “Students of Islam” and told them they needed to help take down these checkpoints. So they helped. Also, the warlords were into child sex slavery, so when Omar went and killed the warlords he’d go and free all the children as well. Many locals began offering the Taliban to help with their other disputes. Omar was seen kind of like a Robin Hood figure. He told people he didn’t want any reward or credit, just that people follow him to set up a just Islamic System in Afghanistan.

My head started spinning when I read this. I have never in my 16 years of life heard that the Taliban used to be good people (Well, good intentions first off...)

·         Where did this sudden martyr come from? Well apparently Omar had a vision where Allah chose him as the one person to bring peace to Afghanistan.

·         During all of these wars young boys with their families fled as refugees to Pakistan. Well, Omar went over there and recruited young boys and men to join the cause.

·         Pakistan’s ISI (Like the CIA) funded and supported the Taliban during this time. The Why? Pakistan saw the Taliban as an effective need against internal aggression. Also they wanted the Taliban to stop the checkpoints and warlords on the Afghan highways (Pakistan had a lot of trucking companies that drove on these roads frequently).

·         By killing and driving away the Mujahedeen warlords, the Taliban received more money from Pakistan and ultimately controlled this entire province.

WMWG Part 5; 1995

1995...

·         By this time the Taliban had 25,000 Jihads and controlled half the provinces in Afghanistan and kept advancing throughout the nation.

·         Because of the sheer number of the Taliban, many mujahedeen’s surrendered, including Haqqani.

·         Omar, in my opinion, started taking a turn for the worse. He decreed that women cannot work, go to school, or can be alone in public without a man to supervise her. He banned things seen as ‘unclean’ like movies, singing, dancing, computers, T.V’s, nail polish, etc.

·         No one really did or said anything about this change because other nations were hopeful that the Taliban would replace the anarchy of the Afghan government and restore order to Afghanistan.

·         Taliban continued to take over Afghanistan, got more Pakistani reinforcements, and captured Herat City.

WMWG Part 6; 1996

1996...

·         This year opens with Massoud, Hekmatyar and Dostum fighting to control Kabul. These 3 joined forces to fight off the Taliban, and they were called the ‘Northern Alliance’.

·         Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are giving money to the Taliban. With this funding, the Taliban surrounded Kabul and cut off all resources to the city. The Alliance surrendered in September and the Taliban moved in.

·         One of the first things they did was to go to the U.N. compound where Najibullah had been staying since stepping down, and beat, castrated, dragged him by the back of a truck, before finally shooting him and hanging him from a pole in the center of Kabul.

I was shocked too the first time I read that. But this man was also a brutal person who very well could’ve tortured people in similar ways.

·         Many people were shocked that Omar actually did this, because his image moved drastically fast from Robin Hood to making Kabul a blood bath.

·         The Taliban now governed the country.

·         During the Soviet occupation, apparently the CIA gave Afghan Freedom Fighters (the Mujahedeen forces and what not) 2,300 missiles. Now they are probably in the hands of the Taliban and possible warlords.

(Confidential memos the CIA make can be deemed no longer important and be declassified and released to the public. Probably where Krakauer got a lot of his information.)

·         During this time, Bin Laden came back from Saudi Arabia, when he left the conflict in Afghanistan in 1990. Where was Bin Laden for 6 years? Well -

In 1990, when Bin Laden was in Saudi Arabia, Iraq invaded Kuwait. Bin Laden wanted to take veterans from the Soviet-Afghan war to take and fight Saddam Hussein. Well instead of the Saudi royal family taking Bin Laden’s advice, they had the U.S. send 300,000 soldiers over. Bin Laden got angry. Bin Laden started openly criticizing the royal family and the U.S.

So in 1992, Bin Laden went to Sudan (In Africa) and started training camps to teach men to make bombs and other terrorist things like guerilla warfare. The CIA saw this as suspicious and asked the president of Sudan to ask Bin Laden to stop the terrorist training camps or leave Sudan. Bin Laden left Sudan but not before he vowed to get revenge on the U.S. for doing this.

So by 1996 Bin Laden is out of Sudan, thoroughly mad at the U.S., and headed back to Afghanistan; Where the Northern Alliance gave Bin Laden a new home in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Which I think happened because they wanted Bin Laden to help them defeat the Taliban.

I’ve been wondering if Bin Laden always hated the U.S. like this and if he had been planning on destroying us longer than we think he has... or if his hatred and resent grew during this time and he just made it up as he went along?

·         When the Taliban defeated the Northern Alliance, Bin Laden switched over to their side.

·         Omar and Bin Laden started spending a lot of time together

I think that Bin Laden was looking for someone who had the most power and money, so he would have the ultimate protection for when he started his attacks on the U.S. I think he waved the fact that he could open training camps to teach the Taliban forces guerrilla warfare and bomb making in front of their faces so they agreed to protect him. He follows the flow of money and power. Clever.

·         Apparently someone in Afghanistan got a hold of some CIA books on bombs and that is how they are learning to make bombs to use again the U.S.

·         Here’s an overview of what the money flow looked liked ---

o   Saudi Arabia Sending money to the Taliban

o   But Saudi Arabia is working with the CIA to keep a watch on Bin Laden and al-Qaeda

o   Saudi Arabia is supporting Pakistan’s ISI by giving them money as well

o   The ISI favored the Taliban and Bin Laden alliance, so they were sending them money.

·         And remember, the CIA had been working with the ISI during the Soviet-Afghan War. But now the CIA did not like Bin Laden and the ISI still liked him.

·         “Having secured the Taliban’s protection, he [Bin Laden] was free to start building the most efficient terrorist organization the world has ever seen.” – Journalist, Jason Burke. November 2001.

WMWG Part 7; 1998

1998...

·         February 23^rd, 1998 ... Bin Laden faxed a Shari’a (an Islamic law) to a London newspaper. In the contents Bin Laden explains that the U.S. had been occupying the land of two Holy places, plundering riches and trying to use the Arabian Peninsula to attack Muslims. He said by committing these ‘sins’ America was declaring war on God and Muslims and also made a call to every Muslim that it was their duty to kill Americans and their allies, whenever possible.

·         More young men and boys started going to al-Qaeda camps to learn how to wage war over Americans.

Now since Bin Laden has the money, power, and protection more and more Muslims, and other ethnic groups from the Middle East, are beginning to listen to him. Plus, he’s in an alliance with Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader and the person who thinks Allah has sent him to bring peace to his nation. This is getting more and more dangerous.

·         August 7^th, 1998 ... Two Saudis detonate a car bomb outside of the American Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. 9 minutes later, An Egyptian detonated a car bomb outside of the American Embassy in Tanzania. Bin Laden directed these attacks.

·         Some people think these attacks that Bin Laden was directing were ploys to lure the U.S. into Afghanistan to kill more Americans.

·         August 17^th, 1998 ... Clinton, dealing with his sex scandal fiasco at the time, decided to conduct a surgical airstrike against Bin Laden.

·         August 20^th, 1998 ... One air strike was to be at the Zawar Kili training camp, which Haqqani and Bin Laden built together. Many battles were also fought here throughout the 80’s and 90’s. This was air strike was called “Operation Infinite Reach”.

·         Unconfirmed reports say that some of the Tomahawk missiles were salvaged when they didn’t explode on impact, and Bin Laden sold them to China.

Since the book actually says these reports have never been confirmed, I’m leaning slightly towards a conspiracy theory.

·         “The war has only just begun; the Americans should not await the answer.” – Al-Zawahri, Deputy of al-Qaeda

WMWG Part 8; 2000

2000...

·         October 12^th, 2000 ... The USS Cole, one of our missile destroyers, arrived at the Yemeni Port to top off its fuel tanks. Two Arabs pulled up to the destroyer in a Skiff boat and detonated a bomb made of hundreds of pounds of C-4 that was packed away in the boat. A 36 by 36 foot hole ripped through the destroyer killing 17 and wounding 39. The suicide bombers turned out to be from al-Qaeda. It’s been said that Bin Laden supervised the entire attack.

·         Bin Laden wanted to lure the U.S. into Afghanistan to mire them in an unwinnable war just like the Soviets.

·         During this time was when Bush and Al Gore were fighting for the presidency and Florida’s ballots.

It seems like every time something of the U.S.’s gets bombed or threatened, something ‘more important’ is happening in the U.S. events that somewhat overshadows the rising terrorism.

·         Richard Clarke, who was the National Coordinator for Security during the Clinton Administration, kept pushing the priority of terrorism to Condoleezza Rice, the National Coordinator for Security during the Bush Administration.

WMWG Part 9; 2001

2001...

·         June 30^th, 2001 ... CIA issued a report to the president, the “Senior Executive Intelligence Brief” and it included the article, “Bin Laden Threats Are Real”. But members of the Bush Administration – Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and even Bush himself – continued to doubt the seriousness of Bin Laden.

·         Then, Bush received a confidential document, “President’s Daily Brief” and included a terrorism assessment headlined “Bin Laden determined to strike in the U.S.” This was the 36^th occasion in the preceding 8 months the CIA had alerted the White House of threats posed by al-Qaeda or Bin Laden.

·         Clarke kept harassing Rice to do something about Bin Laden, and kept challenging her through emails right up until 9-11 happened.

This is the epitome of why people don’t think women should be in politics, they don’t listen. I wonder how 2001 and ultimately our future would’ve been shaped if people like Richard Clarke still held an office; Or even going so far to say what would it have been like if Al Gore was president?

Also, this book heavily critiques the Bush Administration for ‘doing nothing’ when told of the terrorism and Bin Laden’s plans. Looking back it doesn’t look like they really did much, and it is so easy to force the blame on the one who is supposed to be our leader during this time.

·         September 11^th, 2001 ... Biggest attack on America, and this made us declare war on Afghanistan.

Here’s another thought.

WWII- People, mostly women, went to work and rallied around the war. Short wars can pull us out of a depression. We also had those news reels that would show what was going on with our boys overseas. I don’t know of one time that the government during this time had a big scandal because of lies and deceit.

Vietnam- The baby boomers from WWII were growing up and trying to find their own ideas, beliefs, etc. Then Johnson kept lying about what was really going on during the war, then Watergate happened with Nixon, and then Ford ended up pardoning Nixon. And all of this basically pissed everyone off and no one trusted the government. So people started protesting the ‘unwinnable’ Vietnam War.

Now Bush supposedly dismisses the terrorist threats until 9-11 happens; and when Pat Tillman gets killed the military or anyone else doesn’t have the decency to actually say what happened to our American Soldier. History repeats itself when people are too ignorant to remember it.

·         October 7^th, 2001 ... President said the military began strikes against al-Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. This first stint of the war was called “Operation Enduring Freedom”. The president gave a speech that was broadcasted over Pat Tillman’s NFL game.

·         The first strikes happened less than an hour before Bush gave this speech. 4 U.S. ships, 1 U.S. submarine, and a British submarine launched a barrage of cruise missiles toward Afghanistan.

·         October 19^th 2001 ... The first U.S. ground troops – Army Rangers – landed 80 miles south oh Kandahar.

·         At first, the Bush Administration didn’t want to involve many troops other than Special Operations Forces in the conflict – he relied more on airstrikes and ex-Mujahedeen militias. The militias received some 70 million dollars from the U.S. Most of these fighters had been affiliated with the Northern Alliance (Remember? The people fighting the Taliban for power.)

After the U.S. left Afghanistan in 1991, there was a lot of infighting between the groups of people, and whenever power switched to another alliance or the Taliban, many people would desert their militias and follow that power. So, how do we know the ‘ex’ Mujahedeen militias we just gave 70 million dollars to won’t start switching sides?

·         November 13^th 2001 ... The Northern Alliance, along with American bombers, took control of Kabul; forcing the Taliban to scatter. Bush started making secret plans to invade Iraq.

·         December 5^th, 2001 ... The first three members of the American military to die were victims of Fratricide because an inexperienced Air Force tactical air controller gave coordinates to the American troops instead of the Afghan troops.

Fratricide or ‘Friendly Fire’ is when, like during a firefight, someone is killed by their own troops.

The bomb that was dropped almost killed Hamid Karzai, the U.S. appointed leader of Afghanistan. The CIA had been in contact with him since the 80’s.

·         When U.S. landed in Afghanistan, Bin Laden fled to Tora Bora, a mountain with an extensive network of caves and tunnels. U.S. began bombing the caves trying to kill Bin Laden and his people, other officers and such of the Taliban.

·         Bin Laden seemed as if he would surrender and accept death, even making a radio broadcast to other Muslims saying he was sorry for losing this war in the name of Allah. So the U.S. stopped bombing and went into Tora Bora to find Bin Laden’s body, except it wasn’t there. While the U.S. thought the broadcast was a farewell address, it was really a broadcast to keep his troops fighting so he could make a deal with the Eastern Alliance to help him escape from the mountain. He paid them $6 million.

This is the first time the term “Eastern Alliance” has been used in the text. I’m guessing this is the alliance between the Taliban and Pakistan.

·         November 2001 ... (I’m guessing this was before the bombing of Tora Bora) Hank Crumpton, the man who ran the CIA’s operations in Afghanistan went to the Oval Office to warn the president that there weren’t enough troops in Afghanistan to seal off Tora Bora. A week earlier, 1200 Marines arrived in Kandahar. But when Crumpton tried moving some of the Marines to Tora Bora, no one would do it.

·         “Responsibility for blocking the avenues of escape from Tora Bora thus fell almost entirely to Afghan militia fighters from the Eastern Alliance – A motley assortment of mutually hostile former Mujahedeen commanders who were deeply suspicious of American ambitions in Afghanistan, but whose loyalty had nevertheless been expensively rented by the CIA. In retrospect, the decision to rely on these untrustworthy warlords for such an utterly crucial task probably doomed the mission from the outset.” (Krakauer Location 2471).

Bin Laden had close ties with these men going back as far as 15 years. So instead of killing him like they were paid to do, they helped him into Pakistan.

Exactly what I’ve been thinking.

·         Later, when Bin Laden had escaped, he made a speech gloating about it.

WMWG Part 10; 2002

2002...

·         Hundreds of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters were being killed, and the rest had fled to the countryside or Pakistan. But the 3 enemy leaders at the top of the hit list were still at large. Those leaders were Bin Laden, Mohammed Omar, and Haqqani. Omar had recently promoted Haqqani to commander in chief of the Taliban.

·         After Bin Laden and Haqqani escaped to Pakistan, they started reorganizing their network of fighters in the Pakistani city of Miram Shah, where Haqqani would direct Taliban strikes on the U.S. and NATO for many years.

·         “War is always about betrayal, betrayal of the young by the old, of idealists by cynics and of troops by politicians.” – Chris Hedges, “A Culture of Atrocity”.

·         By April 8^th, 2002 ... By this time Pat Tillman had weighed all the options of enlisting into the military, and decided it was what he needed to do. Pat’s brother Kevin also decided to enlist with him. They decided to enlist as ordinary grunts instead of taking the officer path.

·         May 4^th, 2002 ... Pat and his long time girlfriend Marie were married. A week later Kevin and Pat signed contracts committing them to three years service as Army Rangers. Pat and Kevin’s parents, along with Marie’s family, tried to have a kind of intervention to talk them out of doing it.

11 pages of notes later and we’re at the part where Pat joins the Army.

·         June 2002 ... Kevin and Pat were sworn into the military

·         July 8^th, 2002 ... Moved to Fort Benning, Georgia.

·         Because of his celebrity, the Bush Administration turned his enlistment into a marketing bonanza for the “Global War on Terror”. People like Rumsfeld continued to track basically everything Pat did. The Major General John Vines even wrote letter to him begging him to join the 82nd Airborne Division instead of becoming a Ranger.

·         September 20^th 2002 ... Pat and Kevin completed basic training. Stayed in Georgia for another 5 weeks to complete Advanced Individual Training, which is very similar to Basic.

·         October 2002 ... Bush tried persuading to UN Security Council to authorize the use of force in Iraq.

·         Pat and Kevin finished Airborne school and the Ranger Indoctrination Program shortly before Christmas of this year. They were based at Fort Lewis, Washington.

From July to almost Christmas, Pat only got to see Marie a handful of times. In the text, it provides many excerpts of Pat’s private journal. In these excerpts you can see how much he truly loves and cherishes his wife. It is such a beautiful thing to see the inside of a person’s heart in that way when they are separated from their loved ones for so long and going through such a hell as boot camp. The excerpts also show a glimpse at what the military is really like and what kind of changes he had to assimilate to from his normal everyday life.

WMWG Part 11; 2003

2003...

·         2 months after the 9/11 attacks, the president and his officials starting going after Iraq to try and take down Saddam Hussein.

·         February 5^th 2003 ... Secretary of State Colin Powell went to the United Nations to make the president’s argument for invading Iraq. Said Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction and had conspired with al-Qaeda to carry our terrorist attacks against Americans.

·         March 2003 ... Pat and Kevin are flown to an airfield outside of Ar’ar, Saudi Arabia.

·         “I hope this war is about more than oil, money and power, I doubt that it is. If anything happens to Kevin, and my fears of our intent in this country prove true, I will never forgive this world.” – Pat Tillman (Krakauer Location 3100).

During this down time before the invasion of Iraq, Pat got his hands on some of Emerson’s writings and started going through them like wild fire. It hurts my heart to know a life such as this was taken and no one had the decency to tell the truth about it!

·         March 20^th 2003 ... 3 dozen Tomahawk missiles leave warships in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea to target Baghdad, Iraq.

·         “My heart goes out to those who will suffer. Whatever your politics, whatever you believe is right or wrong, the fact is most of those who will feel the wrath of this ordeal want nothing more than to live peacefully.” – Pat Tillman (Krakauer Location 3143).

·         March 23^rd 2003 ... A convoy of the Army’s 507^th Maintenance Company, unknowingly entered Nasiriyah. I military town in Iraq. Fedayeen militia fighters (Iraq’s militia) attack the convoy. One of those was Pfc. Jessica Lynch. Iraqi sources told Marines that she was being held at Saddam Hospital and 8 days later an operation was set into motion to rescue her. Pat and Kevin were part of this operation. Media went crazy over the rumors of the story, that she “had fought to the death, killing many Fedayeen fighters” When in actuality her humvee crashed and she was captured.

·         Jim Wilkinson – arranged for the reporters to interview sources about Jessica Lynch’s story since he was the “perception manager” for the Iraq war in the Bush Administration.

“Wilkinson was the president’s man on the ground at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar, controlling and carefully shaping info about the war disseminated to the international press... Wilkinson simply sowed a little misinformation where it would have the most impact, sat back, and watched his fabrication go viral, propagated by the media frenzy that he knew would ensue.” (Krakauer 3311).

·         Cheney reported that he thought the Americans invading Iraq would be greeted as liberators. Wilkinson’s job was to divert attention away from negative parts of the war, to continue to help market the war for support.

·         When Jessica Lynch was captured, Marines were advancing to Nasiriyah, to cut off its bridges. When they got there they found the 507^th Maintenance Company and had to take their wounded to safety while trying to seize the bridges and hold off the Fedayeen fighters. A total cluster of confusion, especially when the communications were shut down by a number of reasons.

One of the reasons this happened was because the troops were told that the population of Nasiriyah were Shiite Muslims that hated Saddam and they would see the Americans as liberators. This was not the case.

(In 1991 the ‘first’ Bush led the Shia Muslims to believe the U.S. would support them if they rose up against Saddam. We actually did nothing and many Shia were murdered. Deep seated hatred for Americans grew, I’m sure.)

One of the Companies of Marines was mistaken for the enemy and were being attacked by an American jet aircraft, an A-10 Warthog.

I need to revisit my analysis of World War II, the Vietnam War, and now this war. When the government LIES to their people of course they wouldn’t be getting any future war support. Even if Wikinson was just going by orders, it’s hard to accept that he lied about one of our wars. And not giving the troops going into Nasiriyah the proper information (Like, how could no one in the CIA or any other intelligence agency not know Nasiriyah was a military town? We can fabricate facts about weapons of mass destruction but we can’t find out any tangible evidence about the places we’re sending our boys to die?) Before sending them ultimately to death.

“When the military is confronted with the fratricidal carnage that predictably results, denial and dissembling are the time-honored responses of first resort.” (Krakauer 3628).

·         March 28^th, 2003 ... General Tommy Franks ordered an inquiry to what caused the casualties in Nasiriyah. The investigation was completed a year after it started, but eyewitnesses were never interviewed, and video shots from the cockpits of the Warthogs went missing after the incident.

·         April 9^th, 2003 ... The capital of Iraq fell to American forces. Pat and Kevin stayed in Baghdad for 5 weeks.

·         May 1^st 2003 ... Rumsfeld had a news conference where he announced that ‘major combat activity’ in Afghanistan had ended because the ‘bulk of this county was secure’. But really the Taliban and al-Qaeda were just regrouping.

·         May 15^th 2003 ... Kevin and Pat returned home and began preparing for Ranger School.

·         November 28^th 2003... Pat and Kevin received their Ranger tabs and were promoted to specialist.

“It was becoming apparent that the war in Iraq was not turning out a predicted. Increasingly, critics of the administration were comparing it to Vietnam.” (Krakauer Location 3939).

Bin Laden used the invasion to his advantage, since the American occupation in Iraq enraged Arab men enough that they joined the ranks of al-Qaeda.

·         December 2003 ... Pat’s football agent tried to pull some strings to get Pat an early honorable discharge since he had already served in a war zone – So he could get him back to playing football – but Pat refused to do it.