Rich: War suicides give us 'window' into culture of corruption
New York Times columnist Frank Rich called in to MSNBC's Morning Joe program to discuss how the recent suicide of US Air Force official Charles Riechers -- just two weeks after a Washington Post piece exposed his acceptance of a phantom job with a defense contractor -- is part of "long hangover of shame" that will continue as an intangible cost of the war in Iraq.
Rich's Sunday column in the Times described Riechers' suicide as a "window into the culture" of corruption scandals within the Iraq war.
"You know, it's sad, it's tragic because as I wrote about it in the piece, there have now been several suicides of, you know, people in the military who I think earnestly and patriotically want to serve their country, but got caught up in all this money," Rich told host Joe Scarborough. "I mean, we know that for instance, there was $9 billion, almost all of it in American cash... that was given to the provisional occupation authority under [Director L. Paul] Bremer that just disappeared. Like something out of a gangster movie."
Rich went on to say that those who had focused exclusively on connections between Vice President Dick Cheney and the Halliburton company, which Cheney previously ran, had "neglected to realize there are many, many more contractors there and everyone sort of, a lot of people are sort of stealing everything that's not nailed down."
Other suicides, too, can be linked to corruption in Iraq, according to Rich.
"The Wall Street Journal on Saturday had this story of another suicide, not mentioned in my piece, of an American officer involved in food distribution where it looks like a billion dollars or so of money that was used to buy, you know, food for the troops was ripped off," said Rich.
The columnist also cited the case of Col. Ted Westhusing, who shot himself in the head while working for top Iraq General David Petraeus.
"This is a guy who taught at West Point, was an army ethicist, as well as an officer, and he saw so much corruption around him," Rich said, noting that Westhusing himself was not corrupt.
Scarborough quoted from a presumed suicide note from the colonel, with which Rich closed his latest column: "I cannot support a mission that leads to corruption, human rights abuse and liars. I am sullied."
"I mean, what is this saying about this mission," said Rich, "when you have people like this, not only taking their own lives but leaving this as their parting words?"
The following video is from MSBNC's Morning Joe, broadcast on October 22, 2007.
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