Decades of lies and intimidation could not make the Iraqi people love
their oppressors or desire their own enslavement. Men and women in
every culture need liberty like they need food, and water, and air.
Everywhere that freedom arrives, humanity rejoices. And everywhere that
freedom stirs, let tyrants fear. -
George W. Bush, "Mission Accomplished" Speech, May 1, 2003
On March 7th,
2008 Blanca Luna is found stabbed to death in her room on Sheppard
Air Force Base in Texas. Cuts on
her fingers match the pattern of defensive wounds; her mother immediately receives
a letter informing her that her daughter had been murdered. The Air Force later
rules her death a suicide.1,2
In June of 2005, Col.
Ted Westhusing, a West
Point scholar of
Military Ethics, is shot in the head. In the weeks prior to his death,
Westhusing had been investigating widespread
corruption and human rights violations among military contractors in Iraq, reporting his findings to his superiors.
The Army rules his death a suicide.3,4
Private First Class
Lavena Johnson dies in 2005
from a gunshot wound. She has been struck in the face with a blunt instrument,
her teeth have been knocked out, she has bruises and scratch marks on her body,
and she has been set on fire. Lye has been poured into her vagina and there
is a blood trail leading to the scene of her death. If the military is to be
believed, these injuries are self-inflicted.5,6
Colonel Philip Shue dies on April 16, 2003, in a car crash. His wrists and ankles are
bound with duct tape, his nipples have been sliced off, one of his ear lobes have
been severed along with one of his pinkies. His death is ruled a suicide for 5
years, until his ex-wife convinces a judge his death was a homicide.7,
8
In 2004, Army Ranger and Former NFL player Pat Tillman is killed by
three gunshot wounds to the head at close range. His family is told he
was killed by enemy fire, even though the wounds were sustained from 10 feet away.
It takes the military three years to rule the death “friendly-fire”.9, 10
Prior to her death, Army
Specialist Alyssa Peterson refuses to participate in an “interrogation
technique”, records of which the Army destroys. On September 15, 2003, she sustained a gunshot wound to the head, an apparent
suicide.11,12
Army National Guard soldier and lesbian Ciara Durkin tells
her family: “I discovered some things I don’t like and I made some enemies
because of it.” On September 28, 2007,
she dies of a gunshot wound to the head. Her family is initially told she sustained
combat injuries; her death is later ruled a suicide.13
1. http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/murderonthebase/
2. http://www.wikio.com/us/crime/murder/blanca_a._luna
3. http://www.unknownnews.org/0512021127Westhusing.html
4. http://www.rense.com/general69/r3nk.htm
5. http://lavenajohnson.com/category/deaths/
6. http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/06/27/lavena_johnson/
7. http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/06/air-force-colonel-philip-shues-death.html
8. http://www.nowpublic.com/world/philip-shue-case-reads-novel
9. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/26/AR2007072602025.html
10. http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/24/tillman.hearing/index.html
11. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1102-05.htm
12. http://www.militarycity.com/valor/256698.html
13. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/04/world/main3328739.shtml?source=mostpop_story