ASSASSINATING THE DEAD

By now, most blog readers have heard about today’s controversy regarding MSNBC’s decision to pull a Ted Rall cartoon which was critical of Pat Tillman, the former Arizona Cardinals player who left the NFL to join the Army’s Ranger unit. But, if this is news to you, go to A Small Victory, and be sure to click on the two updates after you’ve read the article.

I’ve read enough of Ted Rall to know that expecting him to have an agreeable opinion is, well, like expecting him to beat Scott Adams in a drawing contest–there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that you’d be expecting too much of the guy. Apart from assuming that Tillman’s desire to join the Army was motivated by racism, Rall seems to be implying that Pat Tillman deserved to die for his political beliefs. Implying, nothing–he’s flat out saying it:

Anyone with an open mind after 9/11 could easily have learned the truth, that the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq occured instead of a war on terror, not as part of one. A person who planned to risk his life in combat should reasonably be expected to dig a little deeper rather than to fall for Bush’s transparent lies. We all judge each other, and while Tillman’s decision to sacrifice millions of dollars for his beliefs is admirable, his belief that killing the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan had something to do with defending America was not. At best, Tillman was foolish and misguided.

(I’d link directly to Rall’s site, but I don’t feel like sending him any traffic.)

Lest you think my disgust towards Rall is politically motivated, let me assure you that I didn’t vote for Bush either. And I was equally tired of the “everything bad that ever happens anyplace is the fault of the President” argument when Rush Limbaugh and his many local sockpuppets were making it against Clinton (whom I also did not vote for) back in the mid-90s.

No, what really chaps me is Rall’s implication that the world is a better place without Pat Tillman, because Pat Tillman believed in what he was doing. We are not accustomed, in this country, to stating that people who hold a particular political belief ought to die–or, at least, if they should die, that their death creates an excellent opportunity to heap derision upon them. That’s tremendously disrespectful to a deceased person’s loved ones, which is spiteful enough. But this is worse:

Finally, it’s time for troops who signed up post-9/11 to take a little personal responsibility. It’s one thing for a career soldier to go where the politicians tell him or her to go, but quite another to join the military when the “president” is an illegal usurper occupying the White House, he’s an out-of-control warmonger using the deaths in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania to promote a partisan political agenda and his wars are nothing more than grabs for control of oil and gas resources and pipeline routes. Liberals tend to let volunteer soldiers off the hook, but let’s not forget the hard, cold truth:

If no one had enlisted after 9/11, we wouldn’t be fighting these immoral wars based on lies and greed now.

First off, yes, we would be fighting. Second off, the three and a half years of whining about the Florida recount ceased being interesting–or convincing–approximately 3.4 years ago. And lastly, combining this statement with Rall’s above statement and his hateful cartoon, it seems to me that he thinks anybody who enlisted specifically for this war is better off dead, and the world will improve in their absence.

To wish people dead because they don’t agree with your political views, especially when you know that you’re an extremist (as Rall certainly has to know), is not merely ill-advised, not merely un-American, and not merely morally bankrupt. It’s sub-human, and Ted Rall deserves the scorn he’s getting.