CounterPunch
by Gary Leupp

12/07/05

'I cannot support a mission that leads to corruption, human rights abuse, and liars. I am sullied. I came to serve honorably and feel dishonored. Death before being dishonored any more.' Having written a last note, and placed it by his bed in his trailer on a U.S. military base near Baghdad, on the afternoon of June 5, 2005 Colonel Ted S. Westhusing put his 9-mm. service pistol to his head and blew his brains out. He was 44, survived by a wife and three young children. ... What's special about this case is that Westhusing was a specialist on ethics, a West Point graduate who had taken seriously its code that 'a cadet will not lie, cheat or steal -- or tolerate those who do,' who had received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Emory University for a dissertation on the meaning of honor, and returned to West Point to teach philosophy and English. He didn't kill himself because of battle stress or feelings of guilt following his role in a specific firefight. Looks like he put a bullet through his head because he felt the mission itself -- the war -- was dishonorable...

http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp12072005.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp