about the lack of a Pat Tillman biopic (as an example of a heroic
story about either the Afghanistan or Iraq wars) generated a fair
amount of emails like this one from reader Nick:
“The story of Pat Tillman is good story. One that needs to be told. I doubt
however you would be happy with the final product if it were based on what
really happened to him as opposed to the fantasy version of events. He was
killed in action in Afghanistan by friendly fire. He was not a supporter of
the neocon agenda, in fact nearly the opposite.”
Several readers suggest that I would cry “media bias” if a Tillman
movie included “his family’s view that the military covered up the
circumstances of his death.” (E-mailer David.) Now, I am not an
expert on the Pat Tillman story. I have no idea if, as some news
accounts suggest, he was anti-Bush or against the Iraq War. The point
is, none of it matters. I am calling for Hollywood writers and
directors to make movies and TV shows depicting the heroic stories of
the War on Terror, not for a whitewash of history. Clearly Pat
Tillman was a complex man, a man worthy of a serious film examining
his actions and their underlying motives. His death was tragic, and
any incident of friendly fire is a defining instance of the horrors of
war. But why, I wonder, are e-mailers of liberal sensibility so quick
to assume I (and by extension the Right in general) would only accept
one-sided propaganda? Is it because one-sided propaganda is the
left’s signature move, and they assume that given a chance we would do
it that way, too?