Kayla Williams (author) - Invasion of Iraq

Invasion of Iraq

In January 2000, Williams enlisted in the U.S. Army to train as an interpreter. She was an Arabic linguist/interpreter and SIGINT operations specialist. At the time of the September 11 attacks, Kayla Williams was studying Arabic within the Army. Although she did not support the invasion of Iraq, she took part in one of the earliest invasions in March 2003. Kayla Williams was an Arabic Linguist as well as a SIGINT operations specialist for 5 full years. This includes a full year of deployment (2003/2004) in SWA (Iraq & Kuwait) during the buildup to and during the invasion of Iraq. She continued to serve in Iraq until February 2004. She served in the 101st ABN Div (Air Assault), 3rd BCT, (187th Inf Regt) "Rakkasans".

Kayla Williams did not support the war in Iraq when they invaded. She says it seemed hypocritical to go to Iraq in search of Weapons of Mass Destruction while ignoring North Korea's nuclear program. She also believed that they were losing their focus on the real war on terror by invading Iraq instead of finishing the mission in Afghanistan. But after going to Iraq and meeting Iraqi people, she began to feel that they were doing the right thing even if it had been for the wrong reason.

However, her book details not only the hardships of the Iraqi people, but the soldiers themselves. She also spoke to Soledad O'Brien on CNN about the suicide of her colleague Alyssa Peterson and explained how she was also was forced to take part in torture interrogations during which detainees were assaulted, stripped, blindedfolded, and then confronted with a female interrogator. Williams also said she is still haunted by these events years later.