Citizens' Army

Patrick Tillman, a member of the elite military group of Army Rangers, was apparently killed by "friendly fire". After nearly a year, the exact circumstance of his death have not been settled on to the satisfaction of his family. They apparently have good cause for their skepticism since the reports of his death have been reluctant, tardy, contradictory, and have changed over time. A cover-up is suspected, as is incompetence and gross negligence.

As is their right, Mr. Tillman's family has requested a full and truthful accounting. They have secured the support of public officials and the mass media in their attempts to obtain this accounting.

That they should feel that they have a right to any accounting is, I feel, their belief that their son served in a citizen's army. The Tillman's are reacting to the death of their son as though he were any other citizen. The Tillman's are not alone in their reaction. Many parents of soldiers killed in our more recent wars have also demanded a true accounting of their children's death.

What is unusual, though, is that such a reaction and such demands and expectations are probably unique to this time in history. In other times and other places, soldiers in war were expected to die, and the reason for their deaths was of little consequence so long as the cause of the generals was advanced. What justice any soldier could expect depended less on law than on on the expediencies of morale and the support of his comrades. The understanding was that upond entering the military, a soldier signed away his individual rights -- if it was ever considered that he had any in the first place.

The case of Patrick Tillman suggests that this is not the case now. Tillman's parents do not accept that their son gave up his rights as a citizen upon joining the army, and therefore, as a citizen, his death is entitled to a full accounting.