Pat Tillman's Brother: 'I Wish He Would've Lit These F--king Idiots Up' (VIDEO)

Pat Tillman died more than six years ago in Afghanistan, but his death remains a flash point to this day. Most recently, Tillman's younger brother Rich discussed the tragedy on "Real Time with Bill Maher."

Tillman was an NFL star who gave up his promising and lucrative career to join the Army in 2002, just months after the September 11 attacks. He died in April 2004 as a result of friendly fire, but a military cover-up initially hid Tillman's true cause of death to promote the narrative that he was killed by enemy fire.

Tillman's family has long been upset about the lies told following his death. In June 2005, Tillman's father passionately condemned an army investigator, writing, "I assume, therefore, that you are part of this shameless bullshit. I embarrassed myself by treating you with respect [on] March 31, 2005. I thought your rank deserved it and anticipated something different from the new and improved investigation. I won't act so hypocritically if we meet again." He later added, "In sum: Fuck you... and yours."

Friday night on "Real Time with Bill Maher," Tillman's brother Richard discussed his brother's death at length. At one point, after explaining the "gross negligence" and "criminal" judgment of the soldiers who fired at his brother, Richard said, "I wish he would've just lit these fucking idiots up with his own gun, you know. 'Cause he knew that they were shooting at him. I wish he didn't have so much character, and he would've shot his own guys."

"I wish he would have been like, you guys are fucking clowns, and just lit 'em up," he added. The Tillman Story, a documentary about Tillman's tragic death, is in theaters now. Scroll down for the full "Real Time" interview.

WATCH: (via Deadspin and Guanabee)

Comments

[edva]

09:04 PM on 10/05/2010

This hero's senseless death is the exclamation point on the nadir of America's empire that was the failed Bush/Cheney administration, and their misbegotten, electioneering, war-profiteering, traitorous war in Iraq. It would all be unbelievable if it weren't true. Sickening.

[lastliberalintx]

12:15 AM on 10/05/2010

I watched him on Friday's "Real Time" and he was abrasively eloquent. I am definitely going to have to check this documentary out.

[docmark]

08:40 PM on 10/02/2010

The Bush Administration almost got away with it. The truth about the "Iraq Deception" was just beginning to sink in. Recruiting was down. We were learning about the questionable methods used by recruiters to snag a recruit (evidently.."by any means necessary").
Pat Tillman's "heroic" death was going to be exploited. His life and death was used to drum-up support for the war. Recruiters had a new recruiting pitch. He was honored at virtually every Pro football game. His name was dropped by every Repubican politician. Bush had his "poster-boy". All was good....until his family began asking questions.
"Friendly fire" happens. It's a fact of war. It doesn't diminish the bravery of those who die or were wounded by such events. Covering it up is another matter. Tillman's brother stated some pretty startling statistics. The percentage of battlefiled deaths by "Friendly-Fire" has increased steadily since WWII. From Korea to Vietnam to the Gulf War to Iraq and Afghanistan, the percentages have increased to an unbelievable number. The only assumption that can be inferred is that our military is training recruits to be more aggressive (trigger-happy?).
Most of Tillman's effects were burned (evidence, diary). Soldiers from the top down were ordered to stick to a specific story. We learned the truth. He was shot at point-blank range (closer than 10 yards...which is suspect). It wasn't Vietnam (jungle). No one else was killed. It was a botched mission and a " public-relations" nightmare.

[deschl]

11:46 AM on 10/02/2010

Same thing happened to this little 18 year old girl from St. Louis who wanted to follow in her father's steps and join the military, but her parents have not been able to get anywhere concerning her murder it is actually being ruled a suicide against overwhelming evidence proving it was not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr1iOxS2T7w

[Bug Lump]

05:48 AM on 10/02/2010

Friendly fire, isn't.
Shoot at me, I'm shooting back.

[edva]

09:07 PM on 10/05/2010

apparently, happens a hell of a lot more than we thought.....just like that.

[mc53]

06:08 PM on 10/01/2010

After reading what some of them said after the event, I agree with him.

[Axel Fritz]

11:57 AM on 10/01/2010

General McCrystal took the fall on his bayonet in exchange for apparently earlier earned respect and reputation (although not in pay grade) at the behest of the Bush white house. President DumDum and his advisors (None of whom had any combat experience) stupidly thought the death of a good man could be made to cover the murderous flaws in Cheney, Rove et al. McCrystal justifyably paid for his going along with the murderous charade. Axl

[Huck Finn]

09:25 PM on 09/30/2010

kevin tillman's quote from his article in '06:
"It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we got out." http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/ i'll vote for obama again but he pisses me off when he basically treats bush as a good guy who tried to do the right thing for country. these guys were criminals or the meanest kind and people like tillman family will never get justice they really deserve given the sacrifice they gave of a really good son to this country.

[BlueDog1]

11:23 AM on 09/30/2010

What happened to Tillman is just the tip of the ice berg, with the organization (college) responsible for training 90 percent of all Army flag officers (such as General Stanley McChrystal) moto is "Duty, Honor, Country" need we say more.

These Pentagon dwibs underestimated the pull and power the Tillman's could mount with in the country.

After watching the Ah-bu prison joke were 5 enlisted men were put in prison for all the stuff going on.

Not one flag officers was even indicted no less put in jail, once again the motto "Duty, Honor, Country, probably the biggest cover up in history by our services was the USS Liberty check it out. These are the honorable type of people who will take care of your kids during war.................

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident

[CessnaDriver]

05:21 PM on 10/01/2010

Another cover-up: The USS Forestall fire.

[SarahFiggTock]

11:07 AM on 09/30/2010

This is the tip of the cover-up iceberg. For every story we see or read, there are hundreds more we do not.

[Nice Girl]

08:06 AM on 09/30/2010

No one ever said Pat Tillman was any special or more deserving than other soldiers who were killed by friendly fire. I am a veteran and my husband is still Active Duty. The reason why we are still talking about his death is because of his UNIQUE circumstances. 1. Giving up millions to go fight for HIS country. 2. He was a flying flag for all Americans who were upset and emotional over the attack on our soil. He was in fine shape....an All American Poster Boy for Honor. 3. The fact that the Army LIED to ALL of America about the cause of his death and stuck by that story only until the conflicts of tales told by the men in his platoon. And also partly because his parents wouldnt let the lies rest.
These are some of the main points why we are still interested and in awe and deeply disturbed by this tragedy.
He died trying to honor our beautiful America. Then the men who were supposed to be leaders lied to his parents and to the country he died to protect.
It prompted us to believe that if they lied about Pat Tillman, what else would they be willing to lie about?

[CessnaDriver]

05:25 PM on 10/01/2010

Any ideas as to why his uniform, equipment, and personal belongings were purposely burned?

[Musa1]

06:25 AM on 10/03/2010

You should not put it past them. Take a look at these topics:

False Flag operations like Northwoods Experiment

Gulf of Tonkin incident

Pearl Harbor advanced knowledge

Having parents in the US military, I'm quite aware of the inner politics. With Rumsfeld at the helm, there is nothing that could be ruled out.

[lizr]

01:49 AM on 09/30/2010

WHY ARE YOU CENSORING ALL MY COMMENTS?

truth too hard to take?

[AlexNYC]

12:59 PM on 09/30/2010

Many of mine are censored as well. Too much truthiness.

[truthupontruth]

11:41 PM on 09/29/2010

Speaking of friendly fire, an riveting account of the Jessica Lynch story, which occurred where Tillman was serving in Iraq, is detailed in Jon Krakauer's "Where Men Win (orGain) Glory". He recounts that out of 22 casualties suffered by American, 21 were caused by Americans, a significant number of them as a result of American soldiers getting strafed by their own Warthog tankbusters.The culprit: faulty logic and assumptions made on the ground.

[sangster]

08:54 PM on 09/29/2010

If what Bill says about "friendly Fire" statistics is true why isn't it a large headline and all over in the news?

[NickJones]

07:09 PM on 09/30/2010

Because the really scary, outrageous and criminal stuff, along with some things people just don't want to hear (like 'Muslim Clerics Endorse Anti-Terror Fatwa' (http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/11/08/Muslim-clerics-endorse-anti-terror-fatwa/UPI-38241226199440/)), gets buried by the media, Left, Right and Center. Read some of the Project Censored books.

[TheBear]

06:22 AM on 10/04/2010

bad for the propaganda machine.

[Blitzkrieg Barbie]

07:47 PM on 09/29/2010

Another life wasted.

[lizr]

01:48 AM on 09/30/2010

business as usual for our military.

Wasted Lives R US!