Arguably, when Pat Tillman gave up his NFL contract to serve in the 'War on Terrah', one could say that he was hearing his inner voice calling, even if we disagred with his method of finding where it called from.

It might be said that he was following a higher calling, just as did Yusuf Islam.

Cat Stevens' Tea For The Tillerman "was the story of a young man's search for spiritual meaning in a soulless class society he found abhorrent. He hadn't yet reached his destination, but he was confident he was going in the right direction, traveling at his own, unhurried pace."

With his death in Afghanistan, Pat Tillman became a legend - a legend which, in true Bu$hCo fasion, was a total lie:

Pat Tillman, Our Hero

"I don't believe it," seethed Ann Coulter. Her contempt was directed at a September 25 San Francisco Chronicle story reporting that former NFL star and Army Ranger war hero Pat Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan last year, believed the US war on Iraq was "f***ing illegal" and counted Noam Chomsky among his favorite authors.

It must have been quite a moment for Coulter, who upon Tillman's death described him in her inimitably creepy fashion as "an American original--virtuous, pure and masculine like only an American male can be."

That sound you just heard was the echo of Coulter's bubble-brain bursting.

The very private Tillmans have revealed a picture of Pat profoundly at odds with the GI Joe image created by Pentagon spinmeisters and their media stenographers. As the Chronicle put it, family and friends are now unveiling "a side of Pat Tillman not widely known--a fiercely independent thinker who enlisted, fought and died in service to his country, yet was critical of President Bush and opposed the war in Iraq, where he served a tour of duty.

"He was an avid reader whose interests ranged from history books...to works of leftist Noam Chomsky, a favorite author."

Tillman had very unembedded feelings about the Iraq War. His close friend Army Spec. Russell Baer remembered, "I can see it like a movie screen. We were outside of [an Iraqi city] watching as bombs were dropping on the town.... We were talking. And Pat said, 'You know, this war is so f***ing illegal.' And we all said, 'Yeah.' That's who he was. He totally was against Bush."

This was the real Pat Tillman: someone who, like the majority of this country, was doubting the rationale for war, distrusting his Commander in Chief and looking for answers. The real Pat Tillman, the one with three dimensions, must stick in the throat of the Bush-Coulter gang, a pit in the cherry atop their bloody sundae.

Tillman's transition from one-dimensional caricature to critically thinking human being is a long time coming. The fact is that in death he was far more useful to the armchair warriors than he had ever been in life. When the Pro Bowler joined the Army Rangers, the Pentagon brass needed a loofah to wipe their drool: He was white, handsome and played in the NFL.

For a chicken-hawk Administration led by a President who loves the affectations of machismo but runs from protesting military moms, this testosterone cocktail was impossible to resist. The problem was that Tillman wouldn't play their game. To the Pentagon's chagrin, he turned down numerous offers to be its recruitment poster child.

As for Chomsky, whom Ann Coulter would undoubtedly label 'treasonous', Mary Tillman says a private meeting was planned between him and Pat after Pat's return--a meeting that never took place, of course. Chomsky confirms this scenario.

You were searching for inner peace, Tillman, and I hope you find it. It's looking like you were more honest with yourself than most of us know how to be. Certainly, you were more so than Ann Coulter, in whose intimate dreams you no doubt often starred until you shattered her mythos of you. Certainly, also, you knew more about truth than Bu$hCo ever will.

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