Ian Fishback (January 19, 1979 – November 19, 2021) was a
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
officer, who became known after he sent a letter to Senator
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...
of
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
on September 16, 2005, in which Fishback stated his concerns about the continued abuse of prisoners held under the auspices of the
Global War on Terror
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant I ...
.
After receipt of his letter, McCain, along with
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
Senators
John Warner
John William Warner III (February 18, 1927 – May 25, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974 and as a five-term Republican U.S. Senator from Virginia from 1979 to 200 ...
and
Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Olin Graham (born July 9, 1955) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from South Carolina, a seat he has held since 2003. A member of the Republican Party, Graham chaired the Senate Committee ...
, wrote an amendment to a
Senate bill
A bill is proposed legislation under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature as well as, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an '' ...
that would make illegal previous Bush administration claims for the use of extreme methods of abuse.
Early life
Fishback was born in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
on January 19, 1979.
[ He was a 1997 graduate of Newberry High School in ]Newberry, Michigan
Newberry is a village and county seat of Luce County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The village is located within McMillan Township and is the only incorporated community in Luce County. The population was 1,519 at the 2010 census.
Newberry is ...
, where he played on a football team.
He was admitted to West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...
and earned a bachelor of science degree in middle eastern studies in 2001. In May 2012, Fishback was awarded a master’s degree in philosophy and political science at the University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
, writing his master thesis on just war theory. He received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan in 2021.[
]
Military service
Fishback served in the United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
and achieved the rank of major
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
in the United States Army Special Forces
The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service Berets of the United States Army, headgear, are a special operations special operations force, force of the United States Ar ...
.
He served four combat tours in the U.S. Army, two with the 82nd Airborne
The 82nd Airborne Division is an airborne infantry division of the United States Army specializing in parachute assault operations into denied areasSof, Eric"82nd Airborne Division" ''Spec Ops Magazine'', 25 November 2012. Archived from thorig ...
and two with the Fifth Special Forces Group.[
Fishback retired from the Army in 2014.][
]
Teaching and research
From 2012 to 2015, Fishback served as an instructor at West Point,[ where he built good rapport with cadets. He collaborated with Jeff McMahan to create a joint philosophy seminar for West Point cadets and ]Rutgers
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was a ...
philosophy students in 2013.
He became a Ph.D. student in philosophy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
researching the interplay of morality and law regarding relative proportionality and necessity. In 2021, Fishback submitted his Ph.D. dissertation that was entitled, ''Method and the Morality of War'' (adviser Elizabeth S. Anderson
Elizabeth Secor Anderson (born December 5, 1959) is an American philosopher. She is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan and specializes in ...
).
As an interdisciplinary scholar exploring the moral foundations of obedience to orders and command responsibility in unconventional warfare contexts, he presented and participated in discussion panels on the intersection of national security and human rights, obedience to orders and the structure of the morality, appropriate use of military force, and strategic consequences of torture, among other topics.
In 2020, the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program awarded Fishback the Fulbright-Lund Distinguished Chair of Public International Law grant to lecture and conduct research in Lund, Sweden
Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...
at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) is an experienced research and academic institution with offices, programmes, and convening power covering 40 countries. RWI's mission is to combine evidence-based human righ ...
in January-October 2021. However, his increasing struggle with mental illness prevented him from continuing on with the course in the spring.
Later life and death
He returned to Newberry from Sweden and according to his family struggled with depression.[ Records from his multiple stays at various mental health facilities indicate only a vague diagnosis of unspecified psychotic disorder. Acquaintances, friends, and family all describe Fishback as experiencing extreme paranoia, suffering from the delusion that the U.S. government was tracking after him for his whistleblower activities. Fishback was shuffled between several different facilities during the last months of his life as the V.A. lacked facilities in Michigan to properly house and care for him. ]Veterans' Affairs
Veterans' affairs is an area of public policy concerned with relations between a government and its communities of military veterans. Some jurisdictions have a designated government agency or department, a Department of Veterans' Affairs, Minist ...
later decided he did not qualify for services because he was neither suicidal nor a danger to others.
Ian Fishback died at a non-V.A. care facility in Bangor, Michigan
Bangor is a city in Van Buren County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,885 at the 2010 census. The city is located in the northeast corner of Bangor Township, but is politically independent.
It was first organized as a town ...
, on November 19, 2021, aged 42.[ ] Despite being in excellent physical shape prior to admission in the facility, family members report that within two months, Fishback's health declined substantially. Per his medical records, he was kept heavily medicated and received no psychiatric treatment otherwise save for a single assessment before a transfer to an adult foster care facility, Cornerstone, ten days before his death. According to case management records, staff at Cornerstone continued to over-medicate him, to the point where social workers noted that Fishback could not move or reposition himself without help.
Following Fishback's death, Veterans' Affairs conducted an autopsy which stated his death as "sudden cardiac death
Cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. It is a medical emergency that, without immediate medical intervention, will result in sudden cardiac death within minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and possib ...
in schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...
" despite the heart showing no visible or genetic abnormalities. The report did raise the possibility that the medications Fishback was being treated with could have caused his death, but nothing was settled. External and internal investigations conducted following the autopsy revealed that the V.A. had attempted to suppress documents showing Fishback's attempts to receive treatment from their facilities and deflect blame onto Fishback himself. They also attempted to shift blame onto the state facilities, though Cornerstone and Pathways both released statements arguing that they were not equipped to deal with a complex case where PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a ...
and traumatic brain injury
A traumatic brain injury (TBI), also known as an intracranial injury, is an injury to the brain caused by an external force. TBI can be classified based on severity (ranging from mild traumatic brain injury TBI/concussionto severe traumatic b ...
related to military service could have been involved in Fishback's rapid mental health decline.
His memorial service with around 100 people in attendance was held at American Legion Post #74 in Newberry, Michigan
Newberry is a village and county seat of Luce County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The village is located within McMillan Township and is the only incorporated community in Luce County. The population was 1,519 at the 2010 census.
Newberry is ...
.[Carol Stiffler]
Memorial for a hero
The Newberry Times, December 1, 2021.
Letter to McCain
While stationed in Iraq, for more than a year Fishback expressed concerns to his immediate chain of command regarding treatment of detainees at Forward Operating Base Mercury in Fallujah District
Fallujah ( ar, قضاء الفلوجة) is a district in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq. Its seat is the city of Fallujah.
Cities
*Fallujah (pop. 350,000)
*Saqulauiah
*Amiriyah Fallujah
* Al Karmah
* Al Enaimih
*Habbaniyah (pop. 80,000)
* Al ...
but was ignored.
In 2005 he decided to write a letter to McCain about what he perceived as a military culture that was permissive toward the abuse of prisoners.
The letter resulted in the creation of a anti-torture legislation, the Detainee Treatment Act
The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA) is an Act of the United States Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on 30 December 2005. Offered as an amendment to a supplemental defense spending bill, it contains provisions re ...
, "sponsored by Senator McCain and passed by the Senate in an overwhelming show of bipartisan support with a vote of 90-9."
Recognition
During debates over his amendment, Senator McCain said:
On May 8, 2006, Fishback was chosen by ''Time'' magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for taking his stand against torture.
Matthew Harwood, an associate editor at ''Security Management'' magazine, wrote in ''Attitudes Aren't Free: Thinking Deeply About Diversity in the US Armed Forces'' (2012) that Fishback's letter to Senator McCain "is a testament that inside the US military lies redemption".
Andrew Bacevich
Andrew J. Bacevich Jr. (, ; born July 5, 1947) is an American historian specializing in international relations, security studies, American foreign policy, and American diplomatic and military history. He is a Professor Emeritus of International ...
stated that Major Fishback was a "uniformed whistleblower who took seriously the values of “duty, honor, and country” he had learned at West Point. A classic straight arrow, Ian found intolerable even the slightest deviation from what the soldierly code of conduct required."[Andrew Bacevich]
Duty, Honor, Country: Ian Fishback and the Idea of America
''ResponsibleStatecraft.org'', December 2, 2021
Senator Dick Durbin
Richard Joseph Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Illinois, a seat he has held since 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, Durbin has served as the Senate Dem ...
called Ian Fishback a military hero:
See also
* Joe Darby
* Alberto J. Mora
Alberto José Mora (born April 11, 1952) is a former General Counsel of the Navy. He led an effort within the U.S. Defense Department, Defense Department to oppose the legal theories of John Yoo and to try to end the use of torture at Guantanamo ...
* Philip D. Zelikow
Philip David Zelikow (; born September 21, 1954) is an American diplomat, academic and author. He has worked as the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, and Coun ...
References
External links
Letter to McCain
- Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
full reprint
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fishback, Ian
1979 births
2021 deaths
Military personnel from Detroit
United States Army officers
United States Military Academy alumni
United States Army personnel of the Iraq War
American whistleblowers
University of Michigan alumni
United States Army personnel of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)