In June of 2005 the body of Colonel Theodore ‘Ted’ S.
Westhusing, 44, was found in a military installation trailer
in Baghdad, Iraq, the apparent victim of a self-inflicted
single gunshot wound to the head. At the time he was the
highest-ranking officer to die in the War.
While the death has prompted several commentaries and
suggestions of conspiracy theories online and elsewhere
regarding whether Westhusing’s death was indeed a
suicide, the case raises several interesting observations
about what the Colonel regarded as being ongoing instances
of mismanagement, corruption and human rights abuse among
the contractors under his control.
Journalist T. Christian Miller of the Los Angeles Times
first brought the story to real national attention late
last year, and as he indicated in an interview with National
Public Radio’s All Things Considered on
November 28th, 2005, the story of Westhusing’s death
is as much one of personal tragedy as of an insight into
the changing face of war currently conducted by the United
States in Iraq.
Westhusing’s credentials as an officer were impeccable.
As well as considerable operations and administrative experience
within the Army, he held a doctorate in philosophy and
was an instructor at West Point in English, philosophy
and, most importantly given what he would later claim to
have encountered in Iraq, ethics.
Westhusing volunteered to go to the war in the autumn
of 2004, feeling, as Miller outlined, that it would help
better serve the teaching of his cadets, and he took over
the administration of an aspect of the United States’ ongoing
training of the Iraqi security forces. More specifically,
he was in charge of the oversight of a large American security
company, USIS of Virginia, who had been contracted to carry
out the actual training.
Though it appears that Westhusing’s superiors were
very pleased with his progress, last May he received an
anonymous four-page letter outlining allegations of wrongdoing
by USIS. In his article, Miller details that the letter
cited two particular areas of concern. First, that USIS
had been short-changing the American government on the
costs of training so as to increase profits. Second, and
more alarmingly, the letter’s author claimed that
human rights violations involving USIS had taken place
on at least two occasions. In total violation of the rules
regarding the involvement of private contractors in combat,
it was reported that an individual within USIS had engaged
in offensive operations during the campaign on Fallujah
in November of 2004 and boasted about the number of insurgents
he had killed. Later, the letter asserted that another
USIS contractor had witnessed Iraqi police trainees kill
two innocent Iraqi civilians and assisted in covering up
their deaths so as to protect USIS interests in the country
from scrutiny.
 The letter had a huge impact on Westhusing, who felt he
shared a direct responsibility in the blame for such activity
having taken place under his command. Westhusing immediately
reported the letter to his supervisors and confronted the
USIS contractors with his allegations, demanding an answer,
and yet while it appears that the FBI and Inspector General
of Iraq are still examining the matter, the U.S Army has,
after investigation, largely cleared the contractors of
any culpability.
Three weeks after discovering the letter, Westhusing was
found dead with a suicide note and his weapon beside him
in the military installation that is home to USIS’s
central base of operations in Baghdad. In his suicide note,
Westhusing expressed anguish with the mission he had gone
to undertake in Iraq, and that the degree and extent of
corruption he had discovered was totally removed from the
reasons why he had volunteered for the war. Miller writes
that in Westhusing’s note he explained, “I
am sullied… I came to serve honourably and feel
dishonoured. Death before being dishonoured any more…”
Westhusing is reported by family and colleagues to have
become increasingly distressed and agitated in the period
after receiving the letter, losing weight and becoming
more and more withdrawn that would be in keeping with an
individual’s lapse into deep depression. Still, given
the fact he was a devout Catholic, so schooled in matters
of ethics, and also had experience in dealing with the
issue of post-traumatic stress, some believe this may have
been more than just a suicide. And yet, a three-month investigation
by the military concluded that given the increased strain
in his work environment, the fact his handwriting matched
that on the suicide note, and that gunpowder residue was
found on his hand, that Westhusing had taken his own life.
 Irrespective, Miller makes a compelling case for the fact
that what most certainly killed the spirit in Westhusing,
if not the man itself, was his inability to reconcile the
fact that he felt profit had well overtaken the duties
of honour and country that, no matter how idealistic, he
felt were the core reasons that America traditionally went
to war. Rather, in Westhusing’s view, wars for his
beloved country had now become outsourced undertakings
that were subject to the perverted motivations of money
and money alone for increasingly greedy contractors. The
LA Times reported that a military psychologist reviewing
Westhusing’s letters and emails came to the assessment
that it was a ‘flaw’ he couldn’t come
to accept that doing the right thing might not be the only
motivating factor for the private sector and able to be
accepted and incorporated within the overall military goal
of completing a given mission.
Even in an undertaking that is so overwhelmingly free
from difficulties and convenient black and white considerations
as war, it is no doubt regrettable that ethics and moral
responsibility can be dismissed so easily as the stuff
of mental disorders. This not only dishonours the memory
of Colonel Ted. S Westhusing, but highlights the obvious
absence of men of such character in the administration
of this conflict.
Source:
T. Christian Miller, A Journey That Ended in Anguish, LA
Times, November 27, 2005.
Please see also:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5029893
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20051201/cleisure/cleisure3.html |
