Female Soldier that Killed Herself to Avoid Torture

Greg Mitchell recently wrote about Alyssa Peterson, a US soldier who killed herself in Iraq because she refused to take part in interrogations, a broad term that undoubtedly included torture.

Peterson reportedly killed herself because she wasn’t able to be “two different people,” one a soldier, the other a torturer. The army decided to submit that she was killed in a “non-hostile weapons discharge,” kept her family in the dark, destroyed records of the interrogation techniques and blacked out Peterson’s personal journal.

I think it’s sad that a soldier’s moral standards conflicted with her “duty.” I think it’s sad that this conflict was obviously substantial enough for Peterson to decided to end her life. I’m sad that this was the way our government decided to respond to this event.

I think that some people may see this as the weakness of a female soldier. But I see it as the strength of a female soldier who refused to partake in the weakness of torture.