Did Colonel Ted Westhusing, a philosopher and 'military ethicist' kill himself in Iraq?

I was born in an Army family and I have been hearing of military operations and wars and battles and death since my childhood. As a teenager I was fascinated by the manner in which the American press covered the Vietnam war. And also by how this coverage affected the American public and people all over the globe. Photographs in magazines like Life hit me hard. I still remember the photograph of a young Vietnamese girl running naked after a napalm attack by U.S. Air Force planes. The My Lai massacre is quoted as a classic example of military brutality or of U.S. brutality depending on one's political and ideological affiliations. Films like 'All Quiet on the Western Front', 'Apocalypse Now', 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Platoon' made viewers, including me, think of the cruelties of war. I had always found it strange that politicians or generals could issue commands and thousands of men would go to do battle, to kill the enemy and, very often, get killed themselves. This is something which will always remain an unsolved mystery for me. "Why do men kill?", "How do they manage to justify it?", "Is there a just war?", "How does an Air Force pilot feel after dropping thousands of kilograms of bombs over civilian areas?".... some of these questions may seem extremely silly. But these were issues I gave thought to when I was in my teens. I can't say that I have found the answer to all these questions. As a young child I was convinced that like my father I too would have to join the Army and I may have to kill or, worse than that, get killed if my luck were not with me. I admired the world heavyweight boxing champion Mohammad Ali for refusing to serve the US Army in Vietnam. I also admired the philosopher Bertrand Russell for congratulating Ali for his defiance and courage. I was a bit wary of activists who sided with the communists. I was convinced that nobody was right in this war. I admired the Vietnamese for the manner in which they fought back.

Recently I happened to read of a Colonel Ted Westhusing of the US Army who had a doctorate in philosphy and was serving as an instructor in the U.S. Army's West Point Academy. He had volunteered to go to Iraq so as to understand war better. He wantred to be a better teacher to the cadets he was helping to train. But his disillusionment with the way the U.S. Army was behaving in Iraq grew and he was found dead one day, his service pistol by his side. Did he commit suicide out of total disillusionment? Or was it not a suicide? He was most certainly disgusted with private contractors from the US who were doing a job once done by the U.S. Army i.e. training Iraqis in military duties. He was disturbed by the stories of cruelty and human rights violations he had heard. These were acts of cruelty committed by U.S. citizens on unarmed Iraqis. He may have suddenly realised that the emperor wore no clothes and the revelation may well have driven him to commit suicide. Many may be surprised that he wanted to investigate the question of virtuous conduct in war with special reference to the conduct of the U.S. Army and military. Virtuous conduct in war is what chivalry is all about. But can there be chivalry in a system which drops yellow coloured food packets and yellow coloured cluster bombs? Did the US Governemnt under Richard Nixon think of virtuous conduct when the Pakistani Army was conducting a genocide in erstwhile East Pakistan? The American public was against the Pakistanis. George Harrison conducted a concert for Bangladesh. Joan Baez's 'Song of Bangladesh' shook up the whole world with its lyrics describing the cruelty of the Pakistani Army.

Need Ted have died? Let us hope that the US Government and the U.S. Army learn something from his death. But it does look like nobody will learn anything. The world will continue to function as before. Wars and dishonourable conduct in war will continue to occur. Fanaticism of one kind will be countered by fanaticism of another kind. Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons against the Iranians and the Kurds in the eighties but at that time he was not called a villain by the governments of the West even though human rights groups all over the world had protested. There are newsreports of thousands of Iraqi soldiers being buried alive in their trenches during the 1991 Gulf War. The U.S. was accused of doing this as it did not want man-to-man combat between U.S. soldiers and Iraqis. Thousands of civilians died in the 9/11 airplane explosions. Islamic fundamentalists who are very keen to use Western technology were convinced that they had to kill unarmed civilians for what they claimed was a just cause. Pakistan has been bleeding India with low intensity conflicts in Punjab and Kashmir for over two decades now. They are convinced that they are doing this for the good of Indian Muslims. The same Pakistan has disowned thousands of Bihari Muslims stranded in Bangladesh who swear allegiance to Pakistan.

One remembers Krishna's advice to Arjuna at Kurukshetra before the battle began. But unfortunately we live in Kaliyuga - the dark age. The age which has no heroes, the age which has only villains.
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p.s. A must-read link to an article in the LA Times:

Courtesy (Arts and Letters Daily)

The murder of an innocent Indian

I had no idea how M.R. Kutty looked. He was an Indian citizen who hailed from Kerala and was employed in the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) as a driver. He was posted in Meghalaya. He was sent to Afghanistan as a member of the team building a road between Zaranj and Delaram. He was unlucky to be kidnapped by the Taliban. And four days after he was kidnapped his dead body was found in Delaram province of Afghanistan. He had been murdered by his kidnappers. For more than a day his family, relatives and friends went through the torture of trying to find out whether he was dead or alive. The Taliban had declared that they had killed him. But these claims were not believed. The Kerala CM even rang up his family and told them not to lose hope. Kutty was not an influential man. He was an ordinary citizen of India. Without being unfair to those who worked hard to get him released unharmed I suspect that if he had been a senior official or if his family had been influential there may have been a greater effort to save him. It was only when my mother switched on Asianet television channel and I saw his family through the eyes of a local channel that the impact of his kidnapping hit me. Satellite television has ensured that no corner of the globe is isolated. The powerful men in Delhi must have also seen these newsreports and must have suddenly felt the power of the audio-visual media. In the days when there was no satellite television the ordinary citizen had no idea whether the government was really trying hard to secure the release of hostages. Today his views and his cries and pleas reach the drawing rooms of the high and mighty. I remember Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre who was killed by his captors in England in the mid-eighties. Today he is a forgotten man in India. I wonder whether our urban, westernised, sophisticated compatriots even paused for a moment when they heard of Kutty and his sad death. But Kutty will be remembered as a man who contributed to the rebuilding of Afghanistan. The same Afghanistan which was a flourishing Hindu-Buddhist province many centuries ago. What I find sad is that we fail to recognise our true heroes. Let us hope that the government of India ensures that the sacrifice of MR Kutty is never forgotten.
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Article from The Times of India

Blogging is therapeutic.....

Blogging seems to be the latest craze. It is becoming more and more popular with each passing day. Blogging is encouraging people to pour out their thoughts in the form of writing. It is teaching many that if they feel they have a flair for writing they should go ahead. Blogging is therapeutic. One befriends people. One gets angry at strangers. One makes enemies. And, best of all, one feels good.

One can think of the hypothetical case of a private sector executive who has retired after a long and eventful career. He lives in a flat with his son and daughter-in-law and granddaughter. He has no complaints. His son and daughter-in-law look after him very nicely. He has structured his day properly. He maintains good health. But everything isn't okay. His wife is no more. He is lonely. He is not satisfied. His retirement has given him the time to think. He wants to share these thoughts with others. His friends suggest he write articles for professional journals. But he doesn't want to do so. He feels he has grown beyond his profession. He wants to address a general audience. He is not sure whether magazines and newspapers would accept his articles. It is at this time that their neighbour's twenty five year old daughter comes to his rescue by suggesting blogging. She comes home one evening and tells him whatever she about blogs and blogging. She teaches him how to create one and he is hooked.

He goes through his diary and picks up a few pieces he had written. After a little polishing they are ready. He posts his first entry. He is stunned when a few minutes later he receives the first comment. He is overwhelmed with joy. He has been noticed. The comments pour in. Some are adulatory, some critical, some downright abusive. He takes them all in his stride. Having worked for four decades in the private sector as a manager he knows how to handle criticism - fair and unfair. He also knows how to grow through positive criticism and comments. He discovers the works of other bloggers. He posts comments on some articles he likes and also on some he dislikes. Sometimes these comments and counter comments almost become a verbal fist fight. He enjoys them as he fights fairly. His health improves. He is no longer depressed and moody. He knows people all over the world are reading his words. Some of those who read his entries become his fans. That gives him quiet a boost. In a few months he was won a couple of prizes in blogging competitions. The local papers have profiled him. He is invited by a college principal who has read his blogs to give a lecture to the students. He is thrilled. The interaction goes off very well. He thanks his neighbour's daughter for having introduced him to blogging. His writings acquire an energy which transmits to his readers. He looks forward to each day with enthusiasm. His son and daughter-in-law are happy. The 'old man' is constructively busy. As a matter of fact they observe that they are slightly jealous of the popularity that he is acquiring in the virtual and real world.

A feel good scenario? Maybe. But blogging is changing the world. Blogging is forcing many to think and write. One reads blogs of various levels of excellence. Some are fit for the recycle bin, some should be printed in book form as they are so good. But blogging as a genre is now making its presence felt which , I feel, is a very good thing as it is making people think and introspect more. I read about a press conference in the US where a few renowned bloggers are invited along with other correspondents. I read about blogs being shut down and people resigning from their jobs as they refuse to retract the words they had written in blogs. "If you write well you can be noticed," a blog enthusiast tells me. "I had received many rejection slips from many newspapers and magazines but now I am able to express my thoughts without fear of being rejected and with the added guarantee that others will read and respond to my words." I wish he hadn't let a few rejection slips discourage him. I can understand his present happiness. Had it not been for blogging his words may well have remained buried in his diaries, waiting to be discovered after his death by a grandchild. Or, worse still, going unread into the raddi (waste paper) pile and sold by weight to the raddiwalla to be made into paper packets to store pulses or rice. Blogging has ensured that this will not happen.
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p.s. I must thank blogger Amit Verma for giving me a link to this article by Carla K Johnson in the Washington Post of November 10 which made me think and key in this entry in my blog.

And here is Rebecca Blood, an early blogger, on blogging and its history.

And this is the Wikipedia article on Blogging.

K.R. Narayanan - 'Citizen President' and cerebral giant.

Former President Kocheril Raman Narayanan, the only Dalit,and the only Malayali, to have occupied India's Presidential Palace the Rashtrapati Bhavan is no more . He passed away at the Indian Army's R&R (Research and Referral) Military Hospital in New Delhi today November 9 2005. He had been admitted there on Oct 29 in a very critical condition. K.R.Narayanan was an unassuming man. As a schoolboy I often used to confuse him with R.K.Narayan the novelist.He came from a modest family in Kerala. How he fought adversity and discrimination is a fascinating story. Interesting biographical details are available in this obit in Rediff.

I remember an interview he had given to Debonair in the eighties. I am not sure whether the editor at that time was Vinod Mehta or Anil Dharker. KRN was a senior IFS officer then and was just a few years away from joining politics. He had recounted an incident about Krishna Menon. As a young man KRN had once visited the Indian High Commission in London when Menon was the High Commissioner (as Ambassadors of Commonwealth countires are known). He was shown into Menon's office where Menon was dictating a letter to his secretary. He asked KRN to make some tea for all three of them. After KRN had made the tea Krishna Menon had taken a sip from his cup and had then told his secretary "Now you will make some tea for us."

During the early nineties India was lucky to have four very well read and highly educated personalities at top positions. These were President Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, Vice President K.R. Narayanan, Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

K.R.N had donated his ancestral house in Kerala to an institute conducting research in Ayurveda. This modest house is now known as Navajyoti Karunakaraguru Research Centre for Ayurveda and Siddha at Uzhavoor village,Kottayam district. The ceremony was presided by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh as this report from Rediff tells us. He is survived by his Burmese wife Usha and two daughters Amrita and Chitra. Chitra is an IFS officer and is India's Ambassador to Turkey. K.R.Narayanan will be remembered as an honest and upright man who kept an extremely clean image and also as one of India's best diplomats ever but he will not be remembered for his socialist leanings - an ideology which today's India has moved away from. The architect of this liberalisation being the present Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

John Fowles dies at age 79

John Fowles (1926 - 2005) the author of acclaimed works of literary fiction like The Collector, The French Lieutenant's Woman and The Magus is no more. By a strange coincidence Harold Pinter, the man who wrote the screenplay for The French Lieutenant's Woman won the Nobel Prize for Literature 2005. A few tributes to Fowles:
The BBC
The Wikipedia entry

The Hindu Literary Review... Some good reading

The Hindu Literary Review is published once every month. Thanks to the internet I do not miss any issue. I remember a time when I would try my best to get a copy.The Army library I visited always had one, but I wanted one all for myself. Just look at some of the stuff they are offering this month and you will agree that any booklover who does not read this is missing a lot:

(1) Sachidananda Mohanty profiles Harold Pinter, this year's Nobel laureate for literature. In 1993 while spending a few days at Auroville I had met SM and a few of his friends. I still remember the lift I took in their jeep.

(2) Rakhshanda Jalil converses with Pakistani poet Fahmida Riaz.

(3) Aruna Chandaraju makes Anita Nair talk about her latest novel Mistress. We also have a review of this work by M Mukundan.

And there's lots more. Click here to get to where the good stuff is.