Max Boot: lie to the American people — it is good for them!
I’m puzzled by Max Boot. He is usually a very good military commentator, but I was taken aback by his argument that lying about Pat Tillman’s death was the right thing to do: “Personally I would give Tillman’s commanders a medal — not a dressing down — for trying to prettify this typically terrible incident ...
I’m puzzled by Max Boot. He is usually a very good military commentator, but I was taken aback by his argument that lying about Pat Tillman’s death was the right thing to do:
“Personally I would give Tillman’s commanders a medal — not a dressing down — for trying to prettify this typically terrible incident that occurred in the fog of war.”
I don’t think this is a good idea. First, once you start fiddling with the facts, where do you stop? It is hard enough to know what is going on in a war without people being encouraged to lie. (I think of the old infantry test: You need to trust that when you send out a patrol to check out a possible machine gun emplacement 1,000 meters ahead that they actually check it out, instead of walking out 500 meters and turning around.) Also, I think people who have made the ultimate sacrifice of losing a child in a war really deserve to know the truth.
rscottjones/Flickr
Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1
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