Left I on the News

The doomed man waved his arms, pleading for recognition as a friend, not an enemy.

"Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat (expletive) Tillman, damn it!" the NFL star shouted, again and again.

But that's the least of what the investigation into the death of Pat Tillman has revealed. Here's what is known:

• One of the four shooters had recently had PRK laser eye surgery. He said although he could see two sets of hands "straight up," his vision was "hazy."
• The second said he was "excited" by the sight of rifles, muzzle flashes and "shapes."
• A third said he saw two figures, and just aimed where everyone else was shooting.
• And the final shooter, the squad leader, had 20-20 eyesight, but claimed he had "tunnel vision."

The bottom line is this: "All four failed to identify their targets before firing, a direct violation of the fire discipline techniques drilled into every soldier."

Months' of investigation have gone into sorting out the cause of Pat (expletive) Tillman's death. During that time alone, not to mention the years which preceded, tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans have been gunned down by American forces, and thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese have been similarly murdered by Israeli forces using U.S. weaponry. How many of those deaths have occurred under similar circumstances - failure to reliably identify the target before firing (or dropping a bomb or firing a missile or artillery)? And how many of those will be given months' of investigation? None (although we'll hear claims in some of the cases that "an investigation is ongoing"), because the lives of those victims are considered worthless, especially compared to the life of Pat (expletive) Tillman.