so people ask, what did pat tillman actually die for? in the literal sense, he died pr for this war. and it's not a coincidence that they needed to sell his death as heroic because it came out the same week as abu ghraib and the scandal. they needed the story, they needed the hero and they needed someone in pat tillman, who couldn't turn them down as he did when he was a live soldier. and say, i'm not going to do your ad, i'm just going to be a soldier. whether you agree or disagree with what pat tillman did, the point is that they ruthlessly exploited him in death. and his parents after they heard this, they're very quiet, conservative people. they're a divorced couple. they spoke out jointly about this. they condemned bush. they condemned the war. they condemned just the entire charade that their family was put for and then they immediately got quiet again. i was hoping that they would use that as an opportunity. but two things happened that i thought were a shame. one was that because the story really did get relegated to the sports s