Pat Tillman, the former safety for the Arizona Cardinals who became a U.S. Army Ranger after 9/11, was killed in a firefight near the Afghan village of Spera.

* Pat Tillman, the former safety for the Arizona Cardinals who became a U.S. Army Ranger after 9/11, was killed in a firefight near the Afghan village of Spera. Tillman, who walked away from a $3.6 million contract, refused all publicity so as not to draw attention from the exertions, and the sacrifices, of his comrades. If we violate his wishes by singling him out now, it is only to consider the situation that he represents. Death in battle, defending one's country, is traditionally held to be a noble thing. Horace expressed the thought pithily: "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" (To die for the fatherland is a sweet thing and becoming). But throughout history there have been voices raised in protest. During and after World War I, these became a chorus in the Western world. Wilfred Owen, describing a poison-gas attack, called Horace's line "The old Lie." Owen later died in his war, and is worthy of respect; but he did not address what else Horace said. "Death is at the heels even of the runaway, nor spares the haunches and back of the coward and malingerer." No cunning stops it. Our choice is whether to meet it well--as Tillman, and hundreds of others, from 9/11 on, have done.