Doing Right and Avoiding Wrong with the Law and Politicians ◾ 189
times. e job of the Department of Defense (DOD) is to defend the nation from
attacks, and to ght wars as directed. e DOD is free to inform the president and
Congress about its views of any particular confrontation either before or during the
ght. But it runs great political risks when it attempts to sell a war to the public.
Not long after the start of the Iraq War in March 2003, the DOD began propa-
gating a story about the heroics of Private Jessica Lynch, who ercely fought an
ambush before being captured and abused. (It was barely half true.)
11
A year later,
the DOD told another tall tale, claiming that former football star Patrick Tillman
had died while ghting in