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Rall Answers His Critics

Sort of. Excerpt:
Second, Mr. Tillman served an evil president and an evil cause. Anyone with an open mind after 9/11 could easily have learned the truth, that the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq occured instead of a war on terror, not as part of one. A person who planned to risk his life in combat should reasonably be expected to dig a little deeper rather than to fall for Bush's transparent lies. We all judge each other, and while Tillman's decision to sacrifice millions of dollars for his beliefs is admirable, his belief that killing the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan had something to do with defending America was not. At best, Tillman was foolish and misguided. Finally, it's time for troops who signed up post-9/11 to take a little personal responsibility. It's one thing for a career soldier to go where the politicians tell him or her to go, but quite another to join the military when the "president" is an illegal usurper occupying the White House, he's an out-of-control warmonger using the deaths in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania to promote a partisan political agenda and his wars are nothing more than grabs for control of oil and gas resources and pipeline routes. Liberals tend to let volunteer soldiers off the hook, but let's not forget the hard, cold truth: If no one had enlisted after 9/11, we wouldn't be fighting these immoral wars based on lies and greed now.
There's more, including Rall comparing Tillman with a Palestinian suicide bomber. It angers me that Rall still believes that Afghanistan has nothing to do with the war on terror. It infuriates me that he took the word of some Afghans he hung out with (when he "risked his life as a visiting cartoonist") and determined that we were there for an oil pipeline. His outright reluctance to see fighting the Taliban as fighting terrorism mystifies me. Dementia, indeed. P.S. Until John Kerry stops advertising on Rall's blog and until Kerry stops linking to Democratic Underground, don't try to tell me that Rall and his kind do not represent the mainstream left. Obviously, they represent the man you are supporting for president. Update: I am going to say this just once more. While I view Pat Tillman as a hero, he was no more a hero than anyone else who puts their life on the line each day to fight the war against terrorism and evil. However, because Tillman was already familiar to many of us, his face became the face of the war. For myself - and I believe this is true for many people - Tillman represents all the soldiers who have died in the war on terror. If you piss on Tillman's grave, you're doing it to all of them. Second Update (below)
Comics Journa writer Rich Fiore says:
This is in keeping with a theme in Rall's cartoons from even before the Afghanistan invasion, which is an absolute mania for denying any kind of heroic dimension to anything any American has done in the wake of the September 11 attacks. You saw it in his embrace of conspiracy theories regarding the airplane that crashed in Philadelphia. You saw it in his attempts to undermine the heroic aura that attached to police and firemen. Now, public safety employees are not expected to commit suicide, and the police and firemen who were killed in the buildings didn't realize they were going to fall down, so even though they were undertaking extra hazardous duty for the sake of others you could conceivably argue they were not acting heroically. But here you have the Tillman story. If giving up wealth, fame and comfort to go into anonymous and deadly combat for patriotic reasons isn't objectively heroic behavior then the word has no meaning. Even if you don't believe in the cause yourself, you have to admit that this is the sort of thing that makes gentlemen safe abed hold their manhood cheap. But it's precisely because the behavior is heroic that Rall needs to attack it. Like many people who become obsessed with JFK conspiracy theories, he has gone off the deep end.
Yes. [credit: Treacher]

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Comments

Oh. My. Effing. Gawd. Rall has to win the award for greatest fifth columnist in the country.

There you go again. Telling the truth. You're gonna pay!!

BTW, I knew the non-political blogging wouldn't last. As long as you don't force it, you'll be okay.

Trust yout feelings, Michele.

I wonder if Rall's knee-jerk hero-bashing stems from his dad leaving him when he was little? After that, he decided there were no heroes in the world?

two minor corrections: Afghani refers to the Afghan dollar, Afghan refers to the people (sorry but this just sticks in my craw) and the post by the cartoonist refers to a plane that hit Philadelphia -- no plane hit Philly. a plane did hit in PA East of Pittsburgh in the middle of no where, but not Philly.

other then that spot on.

as well as more legitimate ones like Editor & Publisher.

haha Yeah, the "he RISKED HIS LIFE DAMMIT!!" media outlet is the "legitimate" one.

Hen, fixed the Afghan thing, but you'll have to write the author of the quoted passage about the Philly thing.

Something about this reminded me of a bit from the comics, in Kurt Busiek's Marvels, regarding J. Jonah Jameson's legendary anti-hero mania. I think a lot of people like Rall might have similar motivations:

Phil: You've recently written articles accusing Spider-Man of kidnapping Dr. Jorgenson, the blood specialist -- and of proving himself "yellow" by not stopping a crime wave.
JJJ: Yes. So?
Phil: So how can you exhort Spider-Man to act by calling him a coward -- but when he does act, you label him as a criminal?
JJJ: Phil, if he was a hero -- if your "Marvels" were truly the selfless crusaders they claim -- how could the rest of us measure up? How could we meet that standard?
Phil: But Jonah -- what does that have to do --
JJJ: Nothing! It has nothing to do with the case! Spider-Man is a glory-seeking fraud -- and I'll expose his hypocrisy whenever I --
(and then the conversation is interrupted)

I wonder if Rall's knee-jerk hero-bashing stems from his dad leaving him when he was little? After that, he decided there were no heroes in the world?

DING DING DING. We have a winnah! Pick your prize, anything from the top row. Rall's soul, Micah's heart and Rene's balls, all available and unused by their previous owners! Winnah! We have a winnah!

I really dislike Rall, but he looks a lot like the main character from FireFly and I loved that show.

I'm glad to see you didn't entirely give up the political aspect of your blog Michelle. Ass-spelunkers like Rall need to be exposed for the brain dead Osama fan club that they are, and you do it so well.

Just for the record

Firefly = Good
Rall = Sniveling little twit

This was 100% expected.

Remember "In tonight's news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead."

Rall is completely consistant, so much so that you don't really need to post anything more about him than: "In today's news Ted Rall is still a loudmouthed despicable blowhard asshole."

The day TD shows a little humanity, I'll know that I've died and gone to heaven.

It's not going to happen. No point waiting for it.

BTW, where did you get Ted Rall's defense of his comic from?

. . . he's an out-of-control warmonger using the deaths in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania to promote a partisan political agenda . . .

Remember, only Ted Rall is allowed to use those deaths to promote a partisan political agenda! Him, and maybe Tom Tomorrow.

Is Kerry really running ads on Ted' blog? I could not find them.

Rall doesn't address his putting racist words in Tillman's mouth. As far as I'm concerned, the Ted Rall Unemployment Project is my goal for the day.

I couldn't find Kerry ads (or any other ads) on his blog, either.

Those who went into the second building to fall went back in KNOWING the first building had collapsed and the second could as well.

There were firemen and policemen who mentioned that the buildings might fall on them before they went in but they had to get as mnay out as they could.

These men DID know what was going on. I would call that heroic.

Did anyone notice that JimK's websites all now directly link to Democratic Underground? What the fuck happened because it's pretty damn funny