One day Pakistan is threatened with sanctions because of its alleged links with the terrorists and the next day the country becomes an indispensable US ally against terrorism. — Photo by AP

One will never understand the American mind, the weather and the laws! First the weather: one day it’s hot enough to up the air-conditioning and shed as much clothing as the law will permit without being hauled up for nudity. The next day the mercury drops by 20 degrees spreading shivers all around bundling one with layers and layers of flannel and hitting the heat button on the wall. Now to the American mind: it too blows hot and cold.

Let’s start with the American establishment. One day Pakistan is threatened with sanctions because of its alleged links with the terrorists and the next day Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, honey-tongued and sweet-smiles, says Pakistan is an indispensable ally against terrorism. Make up your mind, you people! Last but not the least are the laws that govern this great country.

While Letterman can get away with sexual harassment of subordinates and shamelessly turn it into a big (dirty?) joke before his audience, the Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski, 73, is hauled over in Zurich and wanted by the US for having had sex with a 13-year-old 30 years ago. The fellow (another sleaze ball) has already paid $500,000 to his victim Samantha Geimer. She has forgiven him; but not the US law. Underage sex has a zero tolerance in the US.

Did the heavens fall on Letterman? Are you kidding? His ratings of ‘The Late Show’ jumped up and continue to climb every night. His employers don’t see any indiscretion by Letterman; nor do a bevy of women rights activists who have been condoning his behaviour saying that if it was all ‘consensual’ between him and his several female staffers, who the devil cares?

Nevada Senator John Ensign’s affair with a campaign aide is hot news. It’s alleged that Ensign misused his influence to find a job for the husband of a woman with whom he was having an affair, then pressured his campaign donors to sign up with the husband’s firm as clients. The affair hit the headlines after the cuckolded husband went public. A decision from the Congressional ethics committee is awaited.

Now to another shocking revelation! This bombshell concerns the army general much in the news these days. Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal is Obama’s point man in Afghanistan. He wants the US president to send another 40,000 troops in the region or else the Taliban will have the last laugh! As a counter-terrorism expert who has launched the military’s most elite capture-or-kill units, McChrystal’s role following the death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan immediately after 9/11 has raised many questions. Tillman was a national football hero who spurned millions of dollars to go fight in Afghanistan. Tillman was a ‘loner, truth seeker, adventurer and physical marvel.’ He was accidentally killed by his own soldiers. Author Jon Krakauer has written a book called Where men win glory, the odyssey of Pat Tillman. He has exposed General McChrystal for converting Tillman’s death into a PR exercise for President George Bush. ‘The president’s popularity ratings were falling drastically, something had to be done.

Tillman’s death provided the ideal platform to turn the tragic incident into a heroic feat. Gen McChrystal, the American commander in Afghanistan laid the plans and recommended that Tillman be awarded the Silver Star’ Krakauer told a TV anchor. Re-tracing the incidents to the day Tillman died a senseless death and the preceding events evoke a sense of outrage. He says the soldiers who killed Tillman in a friendly fire were told to lie and cover-up the incident. They were instructed to say that Tillman was killed by the Taliban. ‘The disrespectful manner in which his (Tillman’s) naked remains were sent home and the deliberate lies presented both to the family of Tillman and to the American public’ writes the New York Times spurred the Jon Krakauer to document the ‘anger and frustration shared by those who knew what happened to Mr. Tillman but were under orders to conceal the truth.’

But today, Krakauer is out there with his book and his TV appearances implicating Gen. McChrystal in the Tillman cover-up. He quotes from a McChrystal e-mail message written to other high-ranking military personnel, ‘in order to preclude any unknowing statements by our country’s leaders which might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Corporal Tillman’s death become public.’

At his senate confirmation hearing as commander for US forces in Afghanistan 4 months ago, General McChrystal acknowledged that the Army had failed the Tillman family. ‘I was a part of that,’ he said, ‘and I apologise for it.’ But McChrystal also said he didn't see any activities by anyone to deceive and that Pat Tillman absolutely earned the Silver Star.

The truth, like Tillman, is once again the casualty.

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