R.I.P. Pat Tillman

One thing that you'll rarely if ever find in this blog is political material. If you want that, you can either go to Lileks or read Lara's blog for a more liberal slant on things. However, I would be remiss if I did not mention the passing of Pat Tillman, the 27-year-old former Arizona Cardinal who gave up an NFL career in order to serve his country following 9/11. Tillman and his brother Kevin, a former minor leaguer in the Indians organization, both became Army Rangers and were serving in Afghanistan. Tillman was apparently killed during a fierce firefight in a Taliban controlled area of eastern Afghanistan. For more on the story, you can go here.

Now I'm not a very political person by nature. My politics tend to lean slightly left of center, but on Afghanistan, I believe that we're there for a good reason. Pat Tillman did too, and unfortunately, he paid the ultimate price for the freedom of his country. You could argue that the only reason we're talking about him is because he used to play in the NFL, but were he just another anonymous soldier killed in the war, he'd still be someone who died for his country.

In my book, that makes him a hero.