Quote :

" THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ A Journey That Ended in Anguish Col. Ted Westhusing, a military ethicist who volunteered to go to Iraq, was upset by what he saw. His apparent suicide raises questions. By T. Christian Miller Times Staff Writer November 27, 2005 "War is the hardest place to make moral judgments." Col. Ted Westhusing, Journal of Military Ethics * WASHINGTON — One hot, dusty day in June, Col. Ted Westhusing was found dead in a trailer at a military base near the Baghdad airport, a single gunshot wound to the head. The Army would conclude that he committed suicide with his service pistol. At the time, he was the highest-ranking officer to die in Iraq. The Army closed its case. But the questions surrounding Westhusing's death continue. Westhusing, 44, was no ordinary officer. He was one of the Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a full professor at West Point who volunteered to serve in Iraq to be able to better teach his students. He had a doctorate in philosophy; his dissertation was an extended meditation on the meaning of honor. So it was only natural that Westhusing acted when he learned of possible corruption by U.S. contractors in Iraq. A few weeks before he died, Westhusing received an anonymous complaint that a private security company he oversaw had cheated the U.S. government and committed human rights violations. Westhusing confronted the contractor and reported the concerns to superiors, who launched an investigation. In e-mails to his family, Westhusing seemed especially upset by one conclusion he had reached: that traditional military values such as duty, honor and country had been replaced by profit motives in Iraq, where the U.S. had come to rely heavily on contractors for jobs once done by the military. His death stunned all who knew him. Colleagues and commanders wondered whether they had missed signs of depression. He had been losing weight and not sleeping well. But only a day before his death, Westhusing won praise from a senior officer for his progress in training Iraqi police. His friends and family struggle with the idea that Westhusing could have killed himself. He was a loving father and husband and a devout Catholic. He was an extraordinary intellect and had mastered ancient Greek and Italian. He had less than a month before his return home. It seemed impossible that anything could crush the spirit of a man with such a powerful sense of right and wrong. On the Internet and in conversations with one another, Westhusing's family and friends have questioned the military investigation. A note found in his trailer seemed to offer clues. Written in what the Army determined was his handwriting, the colonel appeared to be struggling with a final question. How is honor possible in a war like the one in Iraq? "

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-colonel27nov27,0,6096413,full.story

I don't know what to say...I didn't know there were military ethicists. He must've been French, right?

11/27/2005 11:58:18 PM

If you take on a job titled "military ethicist" then you're practically doomed to be miserable.

11/28/2005 12:02:41 AM

shades of conspiracy... cue salisburybot.

Quote :

"Westhusing seemed especially upset by one conclusion he had reached: that traditional military values such as duty, honor and country had been replaced by profit motives in Iraq, where the U.S. had come to rely heavily on contractors for jobs once done by the military."

wow. you mean people who aren't in the military don't hold the values of the military? what a fucking crazy idea!

11/28/2005 1:27:16 AM

I think this is horribly tragic... this poor man's entire world fell apart

he believed in honor and goodness and then saw that there was none (or at least that it was not the prevaling force)

11/28/2005 1:37:55 AM

and its pretty fucking stupid if he killed himself over people not in the military not holding military values...

11/28/2005 1:52:57 AM

those weren't military values

supposedly at one point they were AMERICAN values

but that was all a myth
a pretty beautiful one if you ask me

11/28/2005 2:02:23 AM

I value killing people.

11/28/2005 2:04:21 AM

apparently, he thought suicide was ethical

11/28/2005 5:01:23 AM

This is awful

11/28/2005 5:32:36 AM

this is gonna make a great nicolas cage movie

11/28/2005 9:29:28 AM

Military contractors don't really have a "chain of command".

Quote :

"Trophy' video exposes private security contractors shooting up Iraqi drivers By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 27/11/2005) A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal. The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/27/wirq27.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/11/27/ixworld.html

11/28/2005 10:10:14 AM

Quote :

"this is gonna make a great bad nicolas cage Sean Penn movie"

11/28/2005 2:58:47 PM