Please post by Friday, March 1.
Pat Tillman was a man who voluntarily gave up a lucrative football career to join the army because of a profound sense of duty and patriotism. He and his family understood the inherent risk of any war and accepted that death was a real possibility. However, it may be difficult to accept his death was the result of "friendly fire." The government publicly declared Tillman a hero and made it appear he was killed by enemy action. Should the U.S. government and military have kept the details of his death a secret to his family? Is this a violation of the rules of war? Or is this simply a violation of ethics?
Please post by Friday, March 1.
16 Comments
Rafael L
2/28/2019 10:27:50
The government and military should have told his family the truth about how he died right away as it was unethical to lie to them about how he died a hero. It is not a violation of rules of war, but it was a violation of ethics as the family has the right to know how another family member lost their life, no matter how they died.
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Yip
2/28/2019 10:30:50
I'm impressed!! Posted 7 minutes after the class ended!!
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Rafael L
2/28/2019 11:00:22
No, as he joined the military not for popularity, but to help out his country in fixing the wound left on 9/11. No matter how he died, he deserves to be called a hero just for his thought process.
Jake M
2/28/2019 15:30:26
No, the government should not have kept this a secret from his family. this is unethical to do, the guy that was shooting at the shadows should feel terrible for what he did and the government should feel even worse. However it is understandable that the government kept this friendly fire incident secret. During the Vietnam war we talked about these lieutenants killing civilians, once this got loose in the U.S. everyone flipped to see that we were not actually fighting the enemies but civilians who were unarmed. The Government still should have told his family because his brother feeling like he did the good thing actually did a bad thing by spotting shadows and letting this 19 year old use and kill another soldier.I also believe that they should have told them right away to show the U.S. army to actually recognize that they are shooting at their own troops and not tali bans.
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Celeste
2/28/2019 17:50:57
The government should not have kept this from the family of Pat Tillman. They should be able to know how their son died in order to give them real closure. War is ugly, and it makes sense that the US government doesn't want to show this side of the war, but lying to families is not the correct way to go about it. The fact that they burned his journal and uniform is disrespectful to the family and the memory of Pat Tillman. They were doing exactly what Pat said not to do - exploit him as a propaganda piece. Though this is not against the rules of war, it is unethical. Tillman was a hero, either way, and his service should be honored.
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Gabrielle C
2/28/2019 19:46:30
The government should not kept the secret from Tillman's family. The family should know what exactly happened to Tillman so they can recover from that death. Without the family knowing, your pushing them away from the truth. They are already in pain with his lost, so they should know the truth. This is unethical to keep his death a secret.
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Emma D
2/28/2019 22:13:04
I believe that it was a violation of ethics for the government and military to keep the details of Pat Tillman’s death a secret. While they could claim they were trying to make him look more heroic, it was clearly formulated in a way to make the army seem more appealing and to not discourage anyone from enlisting. They exploited his death by writing stories about his reasoning behind enlisting and how he ‘died’ only to benefit the United States because people prefer glorious war rather than the truth of war. Pat Tillman would be repulsed if he were to hear that after his death the government lied to his family, burned his last journals, and broadcasted his funeral. From the very beginning, Tillman did not want his enlistment to be used as propaganda. He enlisted due to his own sense of patriotism and loyalty to the country, not because of a scheme to encourage others to join while he remained inactive. The family deserves to know the truth about Tillman’s death, not only to receive real closure, but also to create trust between the government and the people. If the nation is lying to you about your loved one’s death, what else are they hiding from you?
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Eryanna B
3/1/2019 00:00:06
The government should not have withheld the information on the death of Pat Tillman from his family or the public. The government used his death as propaganda for the war which is completely unethical. There is possibility that it helped the war effort in inspiring others to join but lying is what makes it worse. The government should’ve told the truth because society needs to accept that war is ugly and things like this happens. In addition, out of his true act of patriotism to deny a contract and instead fight for his country, his family has every right to know what really happened. Whether or not they decide to use him as propaganda from that point forward is up to the family. However, telling a different story from the truth is unethical, it makes society believe that we don’t make mistakes that are fatal. The truth deserved to be told, I personally think they did him a great dishonor by going against his wishes.
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Lucy
3/1/2019 08:44:53
I think they should have told to truth and that they shouldn’t have lied to the family and public because then the people won’t join it they don’t know if the military is always honest
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Richard G
3/1/2019 10:16:30
I believe that the army shouldn't have kept the real cause of death of Tillman from his family. At the same time alto not a violation of the rules of war I personally think it is completely unethical. I believe that if the media was to have released the actual cause of death of Pat Tillman that although the media and citizens would be angry of confused it wouldn't effect the heroicness of Pat Tillman's service to his country therefore I would still consider his death as at least partially heroic.
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Derrick Nault
3/1/2019 11:08:41
I think the ethical thing is to do what will keep up morale for your soldiers and in this case it is unethical. American values side with the individual and the media is free and determined enough to find out the truth to make it so. The worst case scenario is the one that played out in real life. If the media didn’t find out, then it would be fine and if people felt that sacrifice to that extent was justified, it would be. But since you need to convince your soldiers that they are ethical, the military must conform to the values of the soldiers. Here, that would be telling the truth.
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Michael
3/1/2019 11:09:58
The government should not have changed up the story on how Pat Tillman died and released it to the public. They should have told nothing but the truth of the story to Tillman’s family and the public to expose the true ugliness of war.
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James r
3/1/2019 11:19:32
I think it is in ethical because they should tell the family the real story and ask the family if they want to release the real story or make up a heroic story not lie to the family.
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Sam K
3/5/2019 07:10:51
I believe that Pat Tillman’s family should’ve been told his true cause of death. In this case, no rules of war had been broken, but it was one hundred percent a violation of ethics. Going against Pat Tillman’s direct wishes of not turning him into a martyr was wrong of the government, especially when they decided to hide the truth from his family.
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Houstyn McConaghy
3/11/2019 06:28:22
I believe that it was a violation of ethics to keep the details of his death a secret from his family. They should know how he died because they have the right to and that is what he wanted. No, they way he died does not make his service to the nation less heroic in any way. He died by serving the nation that makes him a hero.
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Madison K
3/13/2019 12:39:28
I think it was a violation of ethics to keep the way he died from his family. His family should know the way he actually died and not some lie the U.S government and military told. If the U.S government and military would of just told the family the truth from the beginning, there wouldn't of been any problems.
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