It certainly explains why so many people are fighting so hard to get the truth out about what happened.

What's fascinating about Tillman (and I admit that before the hearings I couldn't care less about Tillman) is that — when taken in conjunction with Lynch's case — it shows the lengths the administration was wiling to go to "manufacture" heroes to distract from the bad news that was already emerging from Iraq.

It's like a real-life version of Wag the Dog, only the people getting "smeared" with the hero label are actually good people in their own right, and that they or their survivors are horrified by what's been done.