A savvy appointment runs afoul of savage grief
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE the power of a mother’s grief.
President George W. Bush learned its potency from Cindy Sheehan, who launched a damaging campaign against the president after her son was killed by enemy action in Iraq. President Barack Obama could be setting himself up for a similar lesson.
Mary Tillman, the mother of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan seven years ago, is blasting Obama for his decision to pick retired General Stanley McChrystal to lead an advisory panel on the problems faced by military families. McChrystal’s selection “is a slap in the face to all soldiers,’’ she told ABC News. “Someone who has a heartfelt desire to help families would not have been involved in the coverup of a soldier’s death,’’ she said.
She has a point. Given his track record with the Tillmans, how could anyone think McChrystal’s strength is family outreach?
McChrystal infamously resigned his command in Afghanistan after a Rolling Stone story quoted aides making derogatory comments about the Obama administration. His recent appointment to a relatively minor administration role is a measure of redemption. It also brings a humiliated general back into the fold right before the 2012 campaign heats up — and out of the circle of retired generals who make a second career out of second-guessing presidential war policy on cable TV.
From that perspective, McChrystal’s appointment is a political winner. Obama looks merciful, while neutralizing a potential critic.
But it also runs right into the Tillman family and their high-profile commitment to disclosing the truth about the role that military and political leaders played in covering up Pat Tillman’s death. Tillman, a professional football player, enlisted in the US Army after 9/11. When he died in Afghanistan in April 2004, the Army first said he was killed by enemy fire. McChrystal, then commander of special operations, approved a Silver Star citation that included the phrase “in the line of devastating enemy fire.’’
Yet as several books and a documentary film have revealed, McChrystal and other senior commanders already knew that Tillman had been killed by friendly fire. Despite that, they went forward with a nationally televised memorial service in which Tillman was praised as a war hero killed by the enemy. Mary Tillman and her family fought to learn the truth, and ultimately accused the military of using Pat Tillman’s death for propaganda purposes.
And McChrystal himself has acknowledged the disconnect between what he knew at the time of Tillman’s death and what was said publicly. “In retrospect,’’ he said in testimony before Congress in June 2009, “they look contradictory.’’
To Obama, who began his administration with a “team of rivals’’ that included former foe Hillary Clinton, finding a place for McChrystal might seem shrewd. It’s not unlike tapping
Similarly, the political gain of hiring McChrystal is offset by the fact that Mary Tillman has a real complaint. A general who lied to the Tillmans about how their loved one died is now Obama’s emissary to other military families. There is something morally wrong about that outcome.
Cindy Sheehan’s cause was broader. After her son’s death, she launched a very personal antiwar campaign. She attracted national and international media attention when she camped outside the president’s Texas ranch in August 2005. Bush’s refusal to meet with her became another symbol of his stubborn defense of an increasingly unpopular war. Sheehan is now a sharp critic of Obama’s foreign policy, but she does not command the media attention she once did.
The depth of Mary Tillman’s crusade is unknown. So is the extent of media interest. And Obama insists he is sticking with McChrystal.
Still, now would be a good time for the retired general to do what Mary Tillman said he never did: apologize. That will not end her grief, but it might signal that he learned something from her outrage.
Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com. 
