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Pat Tillman 2.0: Tale of Sgt. Peralta’s ‘Iraq War Heroism’ in Fallujah Was Total Fiction

21st Century Wire says…

He was the Hispanic-American face of the Iraq War. His death was tragedy for his colleagues, friends and family. US Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta was killed during the Battle of Fallujah in 2004, from a bullet to the head.

This is a fact, but what was added on top of this story… has now been exposed as a total fiction.


PR FAIL: US government marketing campaign design to promote a fraud.

Following his death, the US Navy awarded Peralta the distinguished Navy Cross, then named a US destroyer after him, and there was even talk of displaying his combat rifle at the Marine Corps museum in Quantico, Virginia.

The legend goes as follows: seconds before his death, Peralta heroically scooped a grenade under himself – dramatically saving the lives of fellow US infantrymen. A great American tale of war heroism for sure – one for the ages – but now US military forensic investigators say that this was ‘impossible.’

According to two former Marines who were with Peralta in the house when he was shot said the story was concocted spontaneously in the minutes after he was mortally wounded — likely because several of the men in the unit feared they might have been the ones who shot him. Just like the well publicized legend of Pat Tillman, the Peralta case looks like another instance of not-so-friendly fire.

Why was the Hollywood-style grenade script written in the first place?

Sgt. Peralta joins the ranks of the deceased Pat Tillman (photo, left), and combat survivor Jessica Lynch – as three prime examples of a creative history-telling, and a common US practice during times of war: military ‘hero-washing’.

What’s important to note about this story is that the inertia which drove this lie was mainly fueled by politics – the US government and top military brass (who were more than happy to hang their hat on this story for 10 years), both covered-up embarrassing ‘friendly fire’ incidents by creating a string of ‘hero narratives’, in their desperate bid to make a hugely unpopular and expensive war somehow justifiable – by fabricating a string of fake patriots to present to the American public for the purpose of rallying public opinion. In these instances, our servicemen and women are the victims, as political agendas and emotive PR campaigns take precedence over everything else – including the honor of the soldier and their families. To screw these stories firmly in place, the establishment use the emotional blackmail device known as ‘Patriotism’ – in order to ward off any naysayers.

Indeed, even after their deaths, soldiers are still used as pawns of establishment.

It’s imperative to understand America’s flare for the dramatic and how Hollywood scripts are created and passed off as official narratives by the US government and its fawning media partners. One of the best depictions of this practice is from a scene from the film Wag the Dog, which really says it all:


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Below is the full report which broke today in the Washington Post…

Comrades say Marine heroism tale of Iraq veteran was untrue


Ernesto Londoño

Washington Post

After his death in 2004 in Fallujah, Sgt. Rafael Peralta became perhaps the most lionized Marine of the Iraq war.

Shot in the head during an intense firefight, the story went, the infantryman scooped a grenade underneath his body seconds before it exploded, a stunning act of courage that saved the lives of his fellow Marines.

The Navy posthumously awarded Peralta the Navy Cross, the service’s second-highest decoration for valor; named a destroyer after him; and made plans to display his battered rifle in the Marine Corps museum in Quantico, Va.

The tale of heroism has become emblematic of Marine valor in wartime. But new accounts from comrades who fought alongside Peralta that day suggest it may not be true. In interviews, two former Marines who were with Peralta in the house when he was shot said the story was concocted spontaneously in the minutes after he was mortally wounded — likely because several of the men in the unit feared they might have been the ones who shot him.

“It has always bugged me,” said Davi Allen, a Marine who was wounded in the grenade blast and who said he watched it detonate near, but not underneath, Peralta. After years of sticking to the prevailing narrative, Allen, 30, said he recently decided to tell the truth. “I knew it’s not the truth. But who wants to be the one to tell a family: ‘Your son was not a hero’?”

Reggie Brown, another Marine who was with Peralta that day, said that as members of the squad scrambled away from the blast, one of them said that claiming that Peralta had jumped on the grenade would be a good way to honor his legacy.

“I can remember people saying it would be the right thing to do, to say that he did more than he did,” Brown, 31, said in an interview, speaking publicly about the case for the first time. “I disagree with everything my fellow Marines proclaim to have seen.”

The Navy’s years-long effort to award Peralta the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for courage on the battlefield, has been stymied by military physicians who have studied the case and determined that the forensic evidence made the grenade-thwarting accounts implausible. That finding has infuriated many Marines over the years.

On Friday night, the Pentagon announced that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had turned down a request by Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.) to reopen a Medal of Honor nomination for Peralta. Hagel, after an extensive review that included new material gathered by Hunter’s office, determined that “the totality of the evidence” was insufficient to award a Medal of Honor, the Pentagon said in a statement…

Continue this story at Washington Post

READ MORE PENTAGON NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Pentagon Files

 

 

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