Yesterday I attended the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s hearing, “Misleading Information from the Battlefield” featuring Pat Tillman’s mother, his brother Kevin, Jessica Lynch, and Dr. Gene Bolles, the neurosurgeon who treated Lynch in Germany after she was rescued in Iraq. In the second panel were Acting Defense Department Inspector General Thomas Gimble and Gen. Rodney Johnson, the head of the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, (who both completed investigations last month on Tillman's death) Army Specialist Bryan O’Neal who was present when Tillman was killed, Senior Chief Petty Officer Stephen White, a friend of Tillman’s who spoke at his memorial service, and just for good measure, some shmuck Lieutenant Colonel Army Public Affairs Officer, who had nothing useful to say.

We first heard a blistering statement from Kevin Tillman about the misinformation released about his brother’s death. He spoke eloquently and passionately in his first public appearance in three years. He also happened to mention “intentional falsehoods that meet the legal definition for fraud” and “deliberate and careful misrepresentations” of the events surrounding Pat Tillman's death. “We believe this narrative was intended to deceive the family, but more importantly the American public. Pat's death was clearly the result of fratricide. Revealing that Pat's death was a fratricide would have been yet another political disaster in a month of political disasters ... so the truth needed to be suppressed.” Ms Tillman described elaborately her frustration about the five investigations conducted about the incident, and the questions they deliberately left unanswered.

Congressman Issa, (R – CA) held up the latest investigation by the Inspector General as if to say, “Isn’t this enough?” and then grilled Ms Tillman on what it’s specific shortcomings were. She shut him up quite effectively on that point, but he went on to grill both the Tillmans and Lynch about “who are the ‘they’ here?” as if to suggest that this was a witch hunt. Incidentally, he entered the hearing late, and as Kevin gave his testimony, sat down next to Congressman Mica, (R – FL) and started cracking jokes. I only wish I had heard what they were saying. In fact, the entire Republican attendance was atrocious, with only six of the seventeen Republican committee members in attendance, most of whom came to give their remarks and leave. As one of the troops subjected to “misleading information from the battlefield,” this was a slap in the face. Perhaps they have given up on convincing America that they actually care about the truth.

Jessica Lynch also spoke well, summarizing her story as is already a part of the record in her book and numerous news accounts, many of which reflect the government spin that she was originally subjected to. "The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate tales.” By some accounts, she had been shot numerous times, but as Dr Bolles testified, there was no evidence to support this, despite his extensive diagnostic efforts. It was also falsely reported originally that she was badly treated by her captors, even raped, but the truth is that they attempted to return her. There weren’t even any Iraqi troops at the hospital when she was rescued. “I'm still confused as to why they chose to lie and try to make me a legend when the real heroes were my fellow soldiers that day.”

Well, I’m not confused at all. The story was spun to rally the people behind a war with tenuous support. And it makes me really fucking pissed off. We later heard from the second panel just exactly who “they” were. In the case of Pat Tillman, Specialist O’Neal gave a statement that he typed into a computer, but never saw printed, and never signed. His Battalion Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Bailey, signed the silver star citation that was an utter fabrication, and ordered Specialist O’Neal not to tell Kevin the truth about his brother’s death. Senior Chief Petty Officer Stephen White told the “official story” at a May 3, 2004 memorial service for Tillman. “I'm the guy that told America how he died, basically, at that memorial. It was incorrect. That does not sit well with me.” We also learned that by then, a handful of Generals knew the truth, most likely participated in the cover up, and did nothing to set the record straight.

While these cases of horrendous propaganda should be enough to have you climbing the fence in front of the White House, I have one more story that should push you over the edge. I served in Fallujah from February to September of 2004. I was attached to Golf Co. 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines during the first eighteen days of the siege of Fallujah in April. My team was then pulled to establish the Civil Military Operations Center known as the Fallujah Liaison Team, or FLT. Only in the Marines are there people who can refer to a location as a “team.”

I ran the entry control point at that facility while the negotiations were taking place to establish the Fallujah Brigade. It was a team of Iraqi security forces, composed of Iraqi National Guard (Iraqi Civil Defense Corps) and Iraqi Police. I was the one greeting the pompous Iraqi Generals, many from the old regime, and the Mayor, sheiks and city councilmen of Fallujah who took part in the “negotiations” to establish the Fallujah Brigade. There were State Department Personnel present for all of the meetings, and they were there intermittently throughout my time at the FLT. It was reported that it was General Conway’s decision to take a risk and hand control of the city over to a former Iraqi General, acknowledging the risk that some under his command were insurgents.

In June we had the “hand over of power” and Iraq became a “sovereign” occupied state. It was about this time that we all got a sense that the Brigade was a failure, and that we had essentially been equipping and supplying the insurgency. We knew that we were going to “have to go through Fallujah.” In fact, we often joked about setting up a dam, erecting berms around the city, and just flooding the whole city. One Staff Sergeant suggested that we put up a fence around it and just declare it the “Fallujah Penitentiary” just like in the movie, Escape From New York.

But even the command realized this, and in August, the 1st Marine Regiment under the command of Colonel Toolan gave the order to dissolve the Brigade. “If we have to go into Fallujah this makes it a lot simpler.” “I want to make sure anybody (in Fallujah carrying a weapon) no matter what they are wearing is no longer a good guy,” Toolan told the commanders. “Everyone who wants to fight for the new Iraq, join us. If not, we’ll see you inside the city.” This left approximately 5,000 men in Fallujah unemployed.

But did we immediately invade and kill all the insurgents in Fallujah? No, we didn’t. Bush and Kerry were running too close in the polls, and even Republicans can get away with cheating only so much. Bear in mind, that throughout this period, there were regular attacks on Marines posted around the city, and the FLT received regular mortar and rocket attacks. It was only by sheer luck that none ever landed inside the walls. When a rocket landed near my checkpoint one day, it was only a recently erected berm that shielded me from the blast. A fellow Civil Affairs Marine was not as lucky when he was walking out to that checkpoint and a rocket that landed behind him threw him forward, causing him to break his ribs upon landing. But there were numerous Marines who were killed during this time in small numbers every day in the fighting around Fallujah. But no headlines. The American people had become immune to the reports, and Bush stayed ahead in the polls. But he knew that a hundred Marines dead in downtown Fallujah would be a disaster for his attempt to get “re-elected.”

And so Marines died every day so that we could “keep the lid on Fallujah” until after the election. On November 6th, the Marines that would lead the attack staged north of the city. On November 7th, Operation Phantom Fury kicked off. The Marines and soldiers sweeping the city were going into an area where there had been no coalition presence since April. They faced numerous booby traps, IEDs, elevated sniper positions, and other heavily fortified defenses. The result was nearly a hundred dead US Marines and soldiers and over six hundred wounded. Not only did Marines die holding the lid on Fallujah, but a lot more died that would have in the attack had we done it sooner.

Of course, the allegations that I suggest here may never be proven. It may have been as little as a whisper from Karl Rove, “Hey Georgie Boy, tell the brass to hold off on Fallujah until November.” Then Bush plays the diplomatic bullshit card and says, “Let’s give the Fallujah Brigade another chance.” Then, “Let’s take our time planning this attack and not rush in.” Both theoretically valid and possibly innocent points of “strategery.” But the evidence is piling up. All arrows point to the top. It’s only a matter of time before the house of cards collapses. Yet I still have to ask, why aren’t the American people who at least know a modicum of the truth of these matters not as mother-fucking god damn shit-kicking pissed off as I am?