Suicide Was the Only Way Out of Iraq for Col. Westhusing

[rodeodance]

It is well worth it to read the below pdf file--He wrote about the corruption/mismanagement in Iraq.

http://robertbryce.com/documents/1.pdf



Suicide Was the Only Way Out of Iraq for Col. Westhusing

By Robert Bryce, Texas Observer
Posted on March 16, 2007, Printed on June 7, 2007

http://www.alternet.org/story/49233/

Ted Westhusing was a true believer. And that was his fatal flaw.

A colonel in the U.S. Army, Westhusing had a good job teaching English at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He was a devout Catholic who went to church nearly every Sunday. He had a wife and three young children.

He didn't have to go to Iraq. But Westhusing was such a believer that he volunteered for what he thought was a noble cause. At West Point, Westhusing sought out people who opposed the war in an effort to change their minds. "He absolutely believed that this was a just war," said one officer who was close to him. "He was wholly enthusiastic about this mission." His tour of duty in Iraq was to last six months.

About a month before he was to return to his family -- on June 5, 2005 -- Westhusing was found dead in his trailer at Camp Dublin in Baghdad. At the time, he was the highest-ranking American soldier to die in Iraq. The Army's Criminal Investigation Command report on Westhusing's death explained it as a "perforating gunshot wound of the head and Manner of Death was suicide."

He was 44................ more at: http://www.alternet.org/authors/355/

[cassiepriam]

1. Suicide is never the only way out.

If indeed it was a suicide, he could have used his profound disillusionment as an epiphany. That one should never blindly follow others. That we should be independent thinkers. That we should use our brains and morality to do the right thing.

He could have had the courage to change the system. To speak out.

BTW I should add that I am not convinced that he did commit suicide.