The world holds two classes of men - intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence. -Abu Ala Al-Ma'arri d.1059
b5.ezboard.com/bbiblebabble
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Rambo123UK |
He's Not With God, He's Fucking Dead. |
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sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...6FD091.DTL
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The world holds two classes of men - intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence. -Abu Ala Al-Ma'arri d.1059 b5.ezboard.com/bbiblebabble |
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DonkeeKong |
Re: He's Not With God, He's Fucking Dead. | ||
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I'm thankful, not only for people like Pat Tillman, but for people like the one who wrote this article.
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Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered. Stephen Jay Gould |
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johngodl(d) |
Re: He's Not With God, He's Fucking Dead. | ||
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I'm impressed by his brother Rich and other family members who opposed the construction of a legend around him, usually the done thing in America is to ride such an event for all it's worth. Write books, sell movie rights, establish a Foundation, go on TV and become an activist for some cause or other. The Bush Government would have loved to embrace that family as the all American ideal, amazing they passed on it.
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Rambo123UK |
Re: He's Not With God, He's @#%$ Dead. | ||
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www.truthdig.com/report/i...worm_dirt/ - "you are worm dirt" - comment of his commanding officer.
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Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. - Sir Winston Churchill p070.ezboard.com/bbiblebabble |
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Rambo123UK |
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http://www.independent.co...-afghanistan-565328.html
'Friendly fire' killed American football star in AfghanistanMonday, 31 May 2004
Military Officials conceded at the weekend that a former American football star, who left his multimillion-dollar career to join the armed forces after the 11 September attacks and was killed in action in Afghanistan last month, was probably a victim of "friendly fire". Military Officials conceded at the weekend that a former American football star, who left his multimillion-dollar career to join the armed forces after the 11 September attacks and was killed in action in Afghanistan last month, was probably a victim of "friendly fire". The death of Corporal Patrick Tillman on 22 April shocked the US and was a reminder to many Americans of the continuing perils for soldiers in Afghanistan as well as Iraq. At the time, the US Army said he had been shot by enemy fire while on patrol south-west of Khost, near the Pakistan border. Giving few details, the Army offered the revised version of his fate after reports that he may have been killed by "friendly fire" surfaced in newspapers in Arizona on Saturday. Before signing up, Cpl Tillman played for the Arizona Cardinals with a contract worth $3.6m (£2m) a year. He served in Iraq last year and was sent to Afghanistan on a second tour of duty. "While there was no one specific finding of fault, the investigation results indicate that Cpl Tillman probably died as a result of friendly fire while his unit was engaged in combat with enemy forces," Lieutenant-General Philip R Kensinger told reporters at the Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg. Cpl Tillman's status as a national hero will be hardly dented by the new details of his fate. It is an embarrassment for the US military, however, which had earlier given a fairly detailed account of the events leading up to his death. In that version, Cpl Tillman was said to have died after the second unit in a two-unit convoy came under attack and he turned back with his men to help his comrades. "Through the firing, Tillman's voice was heard issuing fire commands to take the fight to the enemy on the dominating high ground," read an army citation when the soldier was awarded the Purple Heart and Silver Star posthumously for valour. "Only after his team engaged the well-armed enemy did it appear their fires diminished." It now appears that an Afghan soldier who was alongside Cpl Tillman as they returned to the first unit was mistaken as an enemy combatant by one of the US soldiers and fired upon. Other US soldiers began shooting in the same direction, at which point Cpl Tillman was fatally wounded. It seems, moreover, that there were no enemy soldiers in the vicinity at the time. At a memorial service for Cpl Tillman held earlier this month, tributes were led by Senator John McCain, who was held as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. "While many of us will be blessed to live a longer life, few of us will ever live a better one," the senator said. Among those who were insisting that the heroism of Cpl Tillman remained untarnished were officers at Fort Bragg, where his unit was based. "A lot of us sacrifice something, but no one sacrificed as much as he did to join," Sergeant Matt Harbursky said. "And it doesn't really matter how he was killed; it's sad."
One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double
the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Sir Winston
Churchill
--- Bible Babble
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Macaroo |
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Friendly fire seems to happen a lot during combat. I'm surprised it doesn't account for about half the deaths, given what appears to be
adrenalin-charged chaos and what's probably overall a significant contingent of half-trained, inexperienced troops.
I'm not sure about the currently overused "hero" label. Young people seem to get all dewy-eyed and eager about what they think is defending their countries, but when they're actually in combat there isn't much they can do about it if they were mistaken. When they're catapulted into a situation, most of them just do what they have to do to assist their fellows and try to get out with relatively intact skins. It's a good commentary on duty and responsibility, though, and I guess that is a form of heroism. My dad got several medals during WWII, but his main comment was that with a medal and a dime (inflation hadn't hit much back then) he could get a cup of coffee. After he'd been involved for a year or so, his personal goal was to put in the mission hours necessary to go home. War sucks. The ones who declare them are the ones who should fight them. Mac
"It's nice to see that look of alarm on the faces of the others." ~ Graham Chapman
Freethinkers Pub Boomer Bay (For those born 1946-1964) |
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