Another Reason Not To Enlist
A lot of blogs have noted ESPN’s Pat Tillman article. Most posts, like Vastleft’s Onward, Christianist soldiers have concentrated on the interview with Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich, the Ranger regiment executive officer in Afghanistan who conducted the first official Army investigation into Tillman’s death.
The reaction has been to Kauzlarich’s attitude toward atheists, and atheists have a right to be upset that this man that the taxpayers support obviously lets his religious views intrude in his decision making. The military officially frowns on politics or religion being injected into command decisions, but under the Shrubbery those rules have been sparsely enforced.
Before reading the part of the article that is below the fold, I would like to point out what Kauzlarich is implying about Christians. If you accept his view, Christians are a bunch of sheep who never question authority and wouldn’t be upset that the government lied about the manner in which their child/spouse/sibling/friend died. In Kauzlarich’s mind, no Christian would care, because their loved one was with Jesus.
The man is talking like Christianity is a death cult. Do we really want to trust our troops to a man who thinks dying is better than living?
Kauzlarich, now a battalion commanding officer at Fort Riley in Kansas, further suggested the Tillman family’s unhappiness with the findings of past investigations might be because of the absence of a Christian faith in their lives.
In an interview with ESPN.com, Kauzlarich said: “When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don’t believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more – that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don’t know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough.”
Asked by ESPN.com whether the Tillmans’ religious beliefs are a factor in the ongoing investigation, Kauzlarich said, “I think so. There is not a whole lot of trust in the system or faith in the system [by the Tillmans]. So that is my personal opinion, knowing what I know.”
Asked what might finally placate the family, Kauzlarich said, “You know what? I don’t think anything will make them happy, quite honestly. I don’t know. Maybe they want to see somebody’s head on a platter. But will that really make them happy? No, because they can’t bring their son back.”
Maybe Lt. Col. Kauzlarich could explain to Congress why anyone should have faith or trust in a system that knowingly lied to cover up its mistakes and create a “positive” media story. Maybe he was absent from Sunday school that day, but “bearing false witness” is not acceptable behavior for Christians. That information is on the original “Top Ten List”.
11 comments
To paraphrase the quote on a gift T-shirt I received, “Fine — we evolved and Kauzlarich didn’t.”
The Imams at least promise their suicide bombers a good time.
Kauzlarich is not the only who didn’t evolve… We’ve all seen W’s pictures emulating a chimp…
I saw an excerpt from the Senate subcommittee discussing Tillman’s death and the clusterfuck that they consider an “investigation” (kinda like having Karl Rove investigate himself, dontcha think???), and one of the Senators/congressmen on the panel asked some Navy commander if there wasn’t a charge that could be placed on this douchebag Kauzlarich, something along the lines of “CONDUCT UNBECOMING AN OFFICER” — and the Navy guy was stumped. Dumbfounded. “Well, yessir, yes, there is a charge called ‘Conduct Unbecoming An Officer’ but I don’t know… I don’t know if he will be charged with anything… blah blah blah backpedal bluster bullshit bullshit bullshit…”
And whomever the Senator/Congressman was retorted, “WELL, YOU MIGHT WANT TO LOOK INTO THAT, SIR.”
That bigoted cocksucker Kauzlarich is no better than the psychotic sociopathic bullies at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, who “haze,” beat-down, harrass, blackmail, assault, and other wise TORTURE their fellow cadets (or the cadets under their command) who do not convert to their rabid-mouth-breathing-knuckle-dragging, snake-handling psychotic brand of “christianity.” Oh, yeah, they had a “hearing,” they investigated THEMSELVES, but we all know how much that shit accomplishes. Like having Kissinger run the Hague. The bullying and torment of non-christians in Dumbya’s clusterfucked idea of a military (where the cowards and chickenhawks are promoted in a heartbeat, but true patriots like Pat Tillman are degraded, murdered by their fellow soldiers, and the hacks and lackeys and Friends Of Dumbya/Dick get away with murder, thievery, embezzlement, etc., as if they truly are “entitled” to be “above the law.”) is never going to stop until somebody brings this shit out into the daylight for the whole fucking world to see.
I know that Pat Tillman’s family has been tormented for far too long as it is, but I hope that, as they recover from their grief and loss and more than justifiable rage, that they will sue the living FUCK out of every motherfucker in the Pentagon, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, and every cocksucking bigoted so-called “christian” who stabbed/shot Pat Tillman in the back to the point that they will ALL be tried, not before our bought-and-sold piglet traitor “Supreme” Court, but in front of the HAGUE, so that the world itself can bring about the justice that our own government is too fucking crooked and cowardly to withstand.
Dick Cheney and Halliburton may not understand truth, justice, or the rule of law over ALL mankind, but they DAMNED WELL UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF GOING BANKRUPT. And after this illegal, immoral, idiotic and FAKE excuse for a fucking WAR, purely for the PROFITS of Dick, Poppy, Rummy, et al, (Powell, too, dammit), Halliburton and their chickenshit cowards hiding in Dubai should be the SECOND round of hangings, right after Dick, Rummy, Colin, Condi, Chili Bean and Dumbya all swing on the gallows on the East Lawn at sunup. Halliburton, Shaw Group, Bechtel, and Blackwater — every single one of those profiteering blood-sucking soulless cocksuckers needs to be investigated right down to their fucking DNA, and have every cent in profit ripped from their scrabbling little talons, to be returned to the taxpayers of this country and the citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq that they have robbed, raped, murdered, and betrayed.
Ain’t that the truth. Oh, CD, Blogger hates me recently so I haven’t been able to comment at your place. The recliner guys still have it, but I haven’t been able to say it.
Annti, the government has to agree to be sued, and it occasionally does, but not with these people in charge. Kauslarich can be charge for conduct unbecoming, and several other things, but he should be removed from any combat command immediately. No officer should ever speak so dismissively about the death of his troops.
Go to a Daily Kos diaryabout Kauzlarich’s comments on Tillman. There you’ll find a link to the Pentagon’s comments page, where you can ask them to have Kauzlarich disciplined under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Please click the link and recommend the Kos diary.
Do we really want to trust our troops to a man who thinks dying is better than living?
And yet… Bush and his fellow christianists seem to have a similar vision for the entire world. People who actively seek to be raptured as the world collapses around them should be disqualified from all kinds of leadership positions.
Indeed, let me generalize: a fundamental qualification for selection to any leadership post, administrative or military, should be a manifest desire to support the mission of the administrative or military organization in question. E.g., America’s U.N. ambassador should seek to further the success of the U.N. in advancing America’s legitimate positions in the world, no matter how much the extremist neocons may wish to destroy the U.N.; an EPA chief should not deliberately seek to destroy its mission of environmental protection; the Attorney General should direct the Department of Justice in a way that attempts to pursue, well, actual justice. And so on. The mission of the military is the defense of the nation, not the religious salvation of the soldiers, and most certainly not the dying of soldiers, outside of what is absolutely necessary to the defense of the nation. People who think otherwise should be denied leadership positions.
I understand your plan JD, but I filed my complaint with my elected representatives. Any Pentagon that promotes “Jerry” Boykin is not apt to respond to complaints about Christianists. It is highly probable that this is one of Boykin’s proteges.
Glad you stopped by, Steve. Based on what I have read, the Tillmans sound more like UUs than atheists. They have a belief system, but they don’t want to discuss it, because it is not relevant to the problem of the government lies. If you feel like, I’d like to know what you think.
As to your points, cronyism and the cult of personality are the ruling factors in the Shrubbery’s administration. They are about power and politics. They want the power but they don’t know what to do with it after they have it. They don’t want to regulate anything, because their friends don’t like regulation. They view the Federal budget as an opportunity to steal.
The Shrubbery allowed all of these Christianists into government as a reward to his base. He doesn’t care about governing, only about handing out presents to his friends and supporters.
There is going to be some major weeding required in the Federal government after he’s gone to clean up this mess.
Bryan, earlier today I watched a YouTube video of Kevin Tillman’s testimony before Waxman’s committee, and I did not hear the man say one word about religious matters… because they are irrelevant to the matter of the lies spread about his brother’s combat death.
Maybe the Tillman family members are UUs. Maybe not. UUs are not all cut from the same cloth, and most of them do not proselytize, so it’s hard to tell. “Atheist” is a strange term, a bit like “unleaded” gasoline and “wireless” internet connections, defined by what it isn’t rather than what it is. UUs would welcome an atheist into a congregation because literally all explorations of one’s own spiritual dimensions are encouraged; that may be why some fundamentalist Christians mistakenly lump UUs, atheists, Pagans, Wiccans etc. into the same bin as Satan-worshipers (a Christian construct if there ever was one). There’s not much we can do about that: the misunderstanding appears to be deliberate, and most UUs I know are not into correcting people’s understanding of things religious, however faulty that understanding may be.
If I found myself explaining to a congressional committee how the government had spread lies about a relative of mine, I’d be damned (joke intended) if I’d talk about my particular UU beliefs (no UU can speak for all UUs), or the various generals’ Christian beliefs, or anyone’s religious beliefs, apart from what bears specifically on the question of the lies. Pat Tillman was lied about, and his family lied to, and his nation lied to, in the most heinous way. How that becomes a religious issue is quite beyond me.
The “professional atheists” tend to respond to questions about their belief or lack of it, whereas most Americans don’t feel comfortable talking about their beliefs outside of their group of believers. As one of my great aunts used to say when someone talked about their belief in public – that’s pride talking, not belief.
Another odd thing is who asked for a chaplain in Germany? That’s not normal procedure. The family and casualty officer take care of those things after the individual is returned to them. In route you would have an honor guard at any stops, but no chaplain. That sounds like a “photo op,” not a procedure.