Where Men Win Glory, 2009

Waking up to flowers and sweet wishes from my family, and reading friends’ postings about their Mother’s Day experiences (treatments and gifts …) but as I began to listen to BBC Global New Podcast, the first news item darkened my cheerful mood, “Deadly attack at secondary school in Afghanistan.” It targeted at schoolgirls and the blasts killed at least 50 people, and counting.

… many mothers would not see their girls returning home, on this special day.

“炸弹炸死阿富汗首都女子学校附近至少30人” 母亲节 几十个妈妈再也见不到自己的娃了

I’ve just done reading Jon Krakauer‘s book Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman. Tillman was a NFL player who decided to join the Army Rangers  after 9/11 attack, in 2002 and died in Spera, Khost Province, Afghanistan on April 22, 2004, by a friendly fire – fratricide.

Maybe it’s my senior moment but when it comes to Afghanistan and  Pakistan, I’m often confused, even after glanced or read Steve Coll’s marvelous books Ghost Wars (2004) and Directorate S (2018).

Tillman was a NFL player, drafted in 1998, 226th out of 241 players, by Arizona Cardinals, for $158,000, the minimum annual salary of the league, plus $21,000 signing bonus. If he didn’t get to play, then he won’t get his salary.  In comparison, the first draft was Peyton Manning who got 6-yr package deal fm Indianapolis Colts: $48m, with an immediate $11.6m signing bonus. NFL has 32 teams. Cardinals isn’t a star team. But he played well that Rams offered him 5 years contract for $9.6m, which $2.6m will be paid upon signing in 2001 (he turned down) and was offered a contract by Cardinals in 2002 for $3.6 million over three years.

I didn’t know Tillman until he signed up as a ranger in 2002. But within two years, he was killed. Some times after, it was revealed that he was killed by a comrade – fratricide.

This book is all about his journey, quitting a lucrative job to enlist in the army, till his untimely death at age of 27, and the cause of his death, the war in Afghanistan since 2001. The cover up of his death.  I enjoyed the writing as well as the narrator, Scott Brick.

Because of Tillman and this book, I’ll probably be less confused with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

乔恩·克拉考尔 Jon Krakauer 的书《凡人赢得荣耀》是关于一名足球NFL球员 蒂尔曼Tillman, 他于9/11袭击后决定于2002年参军二年后被队友打死于阿富汗.

也许是我昏庸 总是搞不清阿富汗和巴基斯坦. 好久前看了柯尔 Steve Coll 的 《幽灵战争》Ghost Wars (2004) 和 Directorate S (2018), 帮助不大: 这本书也许是因为足球哥 暂时可以分清是阿还是巴;不担保以后… 地域决定一个民族, 国家的命运. Make love not war! 有点废话

小哥是学霸 放弃高薪厚禄去当兵非常另类.  除了2000年小布什和 Gore戈尔之争有点多余(笔墨太多) 书写的挺好的 涵盖范围广 读的人也棒.