Corrupting The American Soul: separating personal feelings from professional duties; A Case Story

The title might seem misleading, because this is the story of one who refused to let her soul get that defiled, but chose to die by own hand not to lose her dignity.

What a shame and loss of a guinuine sincere soul. What a tragedy.

Donwhite, I hope you read this, cause she's a true American Hero... to me. Respect!
_______________________________________

Army specialist Alyssa Peterson, 27, from Flagstaff, Az., served with C Company, 311th Military Intelligence BN, 101st Airborne as an Arabic-speaking interrogator assigned to a prison in troubled Tal-Afar in northwestern Iraq.

According to official records, she died on Sept. 15, 2003, from a "non-hostile weapons discharge." Only the third American woman killed in Iraq, her death drew wide press attention.

More than three years should pass before the truth was revealed.

In 2005 a longtime radio and newspaper reporter named Kevin Elston, unsatisfied with the public story, decided to probe deeper. He made "hundreds of phone calls" to the military and couldn't get anywhere. Untill he filed a Freedom of Information Act request. The documents of the official investigation of her death proved to contained bombshell revelations.

Here’s what the Flagstaff public radio station, KNAU, where Elston now works, reported yesterday:

www.editorandpublisher.com
"Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed...."

She was was then assigned to the base gate, where she monitored Iraqi guards, and sent to suicide prevention training. "But on the night of September 15th, 2003, Army investigators concluded she shot and killed herself with her service rifle," the documents disclose.

The Army talked to some of Peterson's colleagues. Asked to summarize their comments, Elston told E&P: "The reactions to the suicide were that she was having a difficult time separating her personal feelings from her professional duties. That was the consistent point in the testimonies, that she objected to the interrogation techniques, without describing what those techniques were."

Elston said that the documents also refer to a suicide note found on her body, revealing that she found it ironic that suicide prevention training had taught her how to commit suicide. He has now filed another FOIA request for a copy of the actual note.

She graduated from Flagstaff High School and earned a psychology degree from Northern Arizona University on a military scholarship. After being trained in interrogation techniques at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, she was sent to the Middle East in 2003 to conduct interrogations and translate enemy documents.

Friends say Alyssa always had an amazing ability to learn foreign languages.

She became fluent in Dutch and she cruised through Arabic courses at the military's Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., shortly after enlisting in July 2001.

A statement from a fellow student on DLI:

"I met Alyssa only once during a weekend surfing trip while she was at DLI. Although our encounter was brief, she made a lasting impression. We did not know each other well, but I was blown away by her genuine, sincere, sweet nature. I don’t know how else to put it-- she was just nice. ... I was devastated to here of her death. I couldn’t understand why it had to happen to such a wonderful person.”

I do realize there are people - also on this board - who do have sincere feelings about the military, seing it as a "good thing", who don't realize the amount of personal corruption that HAS to go into submitting to such an entity. Who don't see all the BS that goes into the devalued concepts of "honour" and "duty". Who never will admit the very evil it is meant for.

The good once goes first, they say. Well, if they just don't go in the army, they might stay alive. Or else we'll end up being left only with the scum of the skull&bone.

I really don't know where this thread should go, only can we allow anyone to act against their belief?

Is it ok to corrupt your moral, if it's for country, nation and all that ...yes, even if it's for "God"?

Do you think it's right to do so for ANY "higher cause"?

If she suicide, it was for sure worse torture than what we saw and worse than ``waterboarding``...

And indeed, she's a great patriot... but unless suicide, she should have go public...

How do you know it was suicide? That's the official story. If sub-human trash would brutally torture another human, surely they're capable of murder.

Majestic, Please read the link provided for the full story before you deliver your judgement.

If you do, you'll find out she was a religious person. I don't understand myself how any person can join the army, least of all if they have a believe of guinuine origine.

But I know in America - as elsewhere - religion is corrupted. I don't think this person was.

Please use the existing thread on this subject for discussion:

US Soldier Killed Herself After Objecting to Interrogation Techniques


Thread Closed.

In the military, the term hero means more than it does to civilians. In the military, you really don't consider football players to be heroes. You don't consider everyone who enlists a hero, or goes to Iraq, and unless you have a mental disorder or a death wish, you don't consider yourself to be a hero.

Peterson's memory is to be commended for having enlisted and for having answered the call of duty to serve in Iraq, but committing suicide because of the listed reasons is not heroic.

In the military, especially in combat, an individual is expected to do things that might be abhorrent to the person in his personal life. You might be expected to shoot people, set up mines, bomb factories, fire artillery weapons into troop formations and fortified positions, and on and on, but the conditions of war are very different from everyday life back home, or at least they used to be.

I might fantasize about killing my drunken, noisy neighbor, but alas, it's against the law and it's considered bad form in civilized cultures to murder people because they are a nuisance.

One thing that military personnel are never obligated to do and that is to carry out an unlawful order. In fact, it is incumbent upon military personnel to not carry out unlawful orders, except under extreme conditions and even then it is incumbent on those who carry out such orders to report the situation to superiors, as soon as possible.

Spc. Peterson might have been a moral, conscientious person, but she was not and is not a hero. A hero faces challenges and overcomes or dies trying. Peterson didn't even try.

Nonetheless, her death is tragic and she should be mourned for whom she was. It is tragic that she was sent into such circumstances without having the psychological wherewithal to withstand the pressures of her mission.