Lileks points out that Pat Tillman

is not Horst Wessel, nor even John Burch. Or rather, that we are not a people who would lionize militarism in the way the Nazi's did. (Burcher's aren't Nazis, quite.)

Of course, not every Guardsman who signed up expected this; of course, not every soldier is a Pat Tillman. (Side note: those who think we’re living in some incipient Fascist state should note the absence of Tillmanism in the culture today – no songs in his name, no movies played on 2000 screens at the state’s request, no statues, no grade-school drills where the kids are taught to recite his Exploits, no posters of the Fallen Hero in the bus shelters, no mentions in every other speech. Hitler would have gone to town with Pat Tillman. And renamed it Tillmansberg.)