Kevin Tillman links war in Afghanistan to Capitol riot
President Joe Biden said he will withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11. If you’ve lived in Arizona for a long time, news like this puts one name in your head:
Pat Tillman.
Today, Apr. 22, marks 17 years since Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. Seventeen years since the Bush administration lied about the circumstances, created a fictional narrative and used Tillman’s death for crass, exploitative political purposes.
Pat Tillman was the most famous soldier of his day. He’d given up a career with the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the army after 9/11. Not only was he a star athlete, but he also was a renaissance man — studious, articulate, committed.
But he was not alone.
His brother Kevin, a minor league baseball prospect, also walked away from a life in professional sports. He joined the service with Pat and shared much of the same interests and passions.
Kevin (who now works in the software industry) is, like his brother, a student of history. And he sees in America’s past the roots of our problems today.
In an essay posted last month on the website Tom Dispatch Kevin wrote, “Being part of illegal invasion … leaves lasting impressions.”
The headine for his essay is, “On January 6, the U.S. Became a Foreign Country: How Endless Wars and Interventions Helped Create the Assault on the Capitol.”
In his essay Tillman writes, “To see people desecrating that building over grievances rooted in demonstrable and absurd untruths manufactured by President Trump was both grotesque and shameful.”
But not surprising.
Tillman describes in detail a long list of foreign interventions the U.S. has conducted, tracing history’s bloody path across several continents, up to and including Iraq and Afghanistan, where he and his brother served.
He says of the Capitol riot, “What happened on Jan. 6 should still be a wake-up call, forcing us all to see what it means when this signature American approach to foreign policy is used against our own democracy … The Capitol insurrection should be (but hasn’t yet been) treated as a vivid reminder of the way this country’s foreign policy has undermined the American system, too … In some fashion, at least, it undoubtedly influenced the behavior of former president Trump and his followers …”
Tillman is hopeful about Biden’s approach to places like Afghanistan, but he believes it’s even more important for our country “to stop the illegal, unlawful, and immoral behavior around the globe.”
As for the events of Jan. 6 he writes, “If only we had taken our country’s
imperial history seriously, none of us would have found that day either shocking or unprecedented.”
It’s an observation based on study, on analysis, presented by one who has served in war and who knows, by personal experience, how little is gained in the folly, and how much is lost.