The Kiss or Kill Briefs: At Home He's A Tourist

"Disposable Heroes"

by Jason Pancake

The most effective forms of advertising are through personal testimonials or the recommendations of our personal heroes. Some testimonials use the average man or woman to appeal to the consumer. “I’m an average dude and I drink Soda Z because it rocks.” Better testimonials have celebrity endorsers! People use the logic that if someone they really adore and respect uses a certain product or feels a certain way, they must be right. In arguing your case to a large number of people, it’s easier to link an image or a face to a cause than it is to make a clear, sensible explanation. You can write an excellent 500 page argument of why civil rights are important, but it is more effective to mention and flash a photo of Martin Luther King giving a speech. You can describe to a ten year old, the musical and sociological significance of 1970s punk rock history, but to make him/her a fan, all you need is a photo of Sid Vicious or the cover photo of “London Calling.”

The same idea of a “hero” has been used throughout history to support military causes, including the current “War on Terror.” The image of a war hero is an incredibly effective form of propaganda that media outlets and citizens just can’t get enough of because people can easily feel inspired by fascinating stories of heroism and interesting individuals. Unfortunately, what happens if the stories being told were not real? What if the truth was being buried in favor of a cool Hollywood-style ending in order to raise some poll numbers?

The two most recognizable legends to grow out of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were those of Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch. Pat Tillman was the square-jawed football player who gave up millions of dollars to be an Army Ranger and was valiantly gunned down by the enemy while protecting his troops in battle. Jessica Lynch was the cute blond girl from West Virginia who was taken prisoner by Iraqi insurgents during a firefight and whose rescue from an Iraqi hospital was captured on videotape. These were great stories that inspired many in 2003, but turned out to be far from true. Last week, in Congressional hearings, Tillman’s family and Jessica Lynch herself, testified that the Pentagon lied to turn them into war heroes.

I felt especially sad when I heard Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan in 2003 even though I didn’t know him personally. He was just one of thousands of soldiers who have died in Iraq or Afghanistan, but something was different because he was a celebrity that I knew about. He was a hard-hitting safety on the Arizona Cardinals whose square-jaw and tough face looked sort of like Henry Rollins. I liked him because he was a long-haired rebel who was against the Bush administration’s policies and was an avid fan of Noam Chomsky. He was the perfect hero for the America war effort at a time when the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was fresh in the news. It wasn’t until months later, that it was revealed that he was actually shot by his own fellow soldiers. Even Tillman’s family was not told for weeks what had happened and were led to believe that he was killed while heroically saving his team. The soldier standing right there when Tillman was shot in the back of the head by his own men (!), was ordered by military officials not to tell Tillman’s brother, who was stationed nearby, what had really happened. More on this story can be found in this article at USA Today .

Meanwhile, Jessica Lynch was also a perfect hero for the war in Iraq. She already has a TV movie made about her exploits. She appeals to all the key demographics because she is a nineteen year old, small town West Virginia, blonde “Little Girl Rambo” who put up a good fight yet, had to be rescued by the big, strong manly US commandos. During the early stages of the war, the legend was that she was injured in a gunfight ambush while shooting down terrorists, was captured and abused by evildoers, and then dramatically rescued by American troops from a hospital. What actually happened? According to the testimony Lynch gave, her vehicle was indeed hit by a rocket in an ambush, but her gun had jammed so she didn’t actually fire a shot. She was taken to an Iraqi hospital where kind nurses and doctors treated her well, and the Iraqis had actually tried to return her to US forces. However, the military insisted on filming a dramatic rescue operation for a good photo op. At the Congressional hearings, she said “I'm still confused why they lied and tried to make me into a legend.” “American people don't need to be told elaborate tales” about US forces, she said. In the end, she ended up being a true hero by standing up to the government that tried to hide the truth and use lies about her to sell a badly mismanaged war.

Regardless of the lies told, there isn’t a question of the bravery of Tillman and Lynch. It is just really appalling how they were used as pawns and publicity and then casually disposed of and kept out of the public eye as the truth was revealed. Today, Tillman’s friendly fire case still hasn’t been fully investigated, and Lynch still suffers from medical problems from her injuries and needs a brace to stand.

Selling an unpopular war can’t be done with charts and academic papers. A country needs larger than life characters. There are thousands of tragic personal stories of dead and injured men and women from this war, but most of those stories aren’t widely circulated because they don’t involve teenage girls sensationally rescued on video, or NFL players who become Army Rangers. Until more celebrities start fighting in the war, the only stories you will hear about soldiers in the news will be largely accounts of anonymous, unknown soldiers killed by road side bombs. Their families and friends will suffer (and perhaps on PBS you might actually see a name, photo, and age), but for the most part, the casualties remain treated by TV news as flag-covered boxes with a number. 3000, 3500, 4000.