Army Launches Investigation Into Pat Tillman's Death

After nearly two years, the Army is finally launching a criminal investigation into the death, by friendly fire, of Pat Tillman. From the Washington Post:

The Army is opening a criminal investigation into the friendly fire death of former NFL player Pat Tillman to probe whether negligent homicide charges should be brought against members of his Ranger unit who killed him in Afghanistan nearly two years ago, according to defense officials. [...]

The Army originally reported that Tillman was killed in a fierce firefight with enemy forces in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, and officials heralded his heroism with a tale of how he was charging a hill against the enemy when he was shot. Weeks later, after a national televised memorial service, the Army revealed that he had been gunned down by members of his own unit who rounded a corner in a Humvee and mistook him and a coalition Afghan fighter for the enemy.

Mary Tillman said Saturday that she believes evidence of a crime has existed all along, and that the family's repeated calls for a criminal investigation were ignored until now. "It is completely obvious that this should have been done from the very beginning," she said. "The military has had every opportunity to do the right thing and they haven't. They knew all along that something was seriously wrong and they just wanted to cover it up."

Will the truth prevail?

Patrick Tillman Sr. expressed skepticism that the new investigation will yield additional answers. "I think it's another step," he said. "But if you send investigators to reinvestigate an investigation that was falsified in the first place, what do you think you're going to get?"

Pick your tragedy. The Bush Administration has brought an abundance of them to our nation.