Bombshell alert

In the previous post I spoke of that fine Irish Muslim, Barry O'bama, declaring victory in Iraq. What the prez actually said was that American forces withdrew from Iraq as promised and ahead of schedule, thus patting himself on the back for presiding over the first war in history that ended early!

Did anyone notice, by the way, that the last Americans left Baghdad before dawn? Kind of spoiled the victory parade.

You know what? Maybe it wasn't such a glorious victory after all. This opinion is hinted at by award-winning author Jon Krakauer, in a new book, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, which just came out this week. I've got my name on the reserve list at the local public library.

From the preview review in The Huffington Post:
Krakauer's book...uncovers the intricate -- and, at times, outrageous -- conspiracy surrounding the death of American solider and former football star Pat Tillman. In April 2004 Tillman died by friendly fire in Afghanistan. The Bush Administration, Krakauer alleges, skewed this truth by awarding the former NFL player a Silver Star.

"The Silver Star was presented -- the story about Taliban charging the hill was concocted -- to avoid revealing to the American people that this was friendly fire," Krakauer said on The Colbert Report on Thursday.

Colbert asked: "Why talk about this?"
In an impassioned response, Krakauer railed, "How do you repay someone like Tillman? Who -- out of a sense of duty and patriotism -- he joined the army, and the guy's in the army.
The army itself hijacked his honor. How do you reconcile that?"

I couldn't locate the Colbert interview clip for you, but you can watch a similar but more serious conversation between Mr. Krakauer and Charlie Rose here.

I'll give you a mini-review and comments as soon as I can get my hands on the book. For now I'll just say, look out for more of the same when the full story of Afghanistan is finally told.

FOOTNOTE: A couple of days ago, Walt asked who won and who lost in Iraq? Patrick Graham, writing in today's Globe and Mail says everybody lost and nobody won. Click here to read his excellent analysis of the confusion, lies, fear and death.