As far as being sent over to kill other Muslims – it’s obvious it could be a conflict for some…but I would not automatically think because someone was Muslim, that they would be against serving in the war. Christians have fought and killed Christians throughout our war history. There may be some living here affected by cultural influences of the Palestine/Israel confict, etc., but there are plenty of non-Muslim groups here in the states who are passionate about their social justice causes as well..and don’t kill.

The (few) Muslims I have known here in the states would fight for this country….and love this country and appreciate being here.

Dr. Grohol @ 9:35 a.m. on November 14th, 2009:
“It’s amazing to me how his supervisors could sit in a meeting, sharing such serious — potentially lethal — concerns, and then back down from taking action because, apparently, it took too much effort to remove him. Astounding.”

But my guess is good as anybody’s….

Officials considered kicking Hasan out of the program but chose not to partly because firing a doctor is a “cumbersome and lengthy” process that involves hearings and potential legal conflict, sources told NPR.

Another question: Would the shrinks who manage this website say that the guys who flew into the twin towers were mentally ill? I don’t think any court of law would.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,574546,00.html

Here’s the most damning part, reported by NPR earlier:

Medical officials at Walter Reed Army Medical Center held a series of meetings beginning in the Spring of 2008 to discuss serious concerns about Hasan’s work and behavior, National Public Radio reported. [...]

An official who participated in the discussions reportedly told others he was worried that if Hasan was deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, he might leak covert military information to Islamic extremists, NPR reported.

Another official “wondered aloud” to colleagues whether Hasan might be capable of killing fellow soldiers in the same way a Muslim sergeant in 2003 had set off grenades at a base in Kuwait, killing two and wounding 14, the radio network reported.

The officials who discussed Hasan’s status were unaware — as some top Walter Reed hospital officials were — that intelligence agencies had been tracking Hasan’s e-mails to a radical imam since December 2008, NPR said.

Officials considered kicking Hasan out of the program but chose not to partly because firing a doctor is a “cumbersome and lengthy” process that involves hearings and potential legal conflict, sources told NPR.

It’s amazing to me how his supervisors could sit in a meeting, sharing such serious — potentially lethal — concerns, and then back down from taking action because, apparently, it took too much effort to remove him. Astounding.

Am I crazy because of considering all the people just human beings? Then the above who have the same opinion and Christine from the same site http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/11/09/the-psychology-of-hasan-the-ft-hood-shooter/, or other journalists interested mainly in WHY it happened and what could be learned/learnt from that, are as crazy as I am! For these “kind of crazy” people I admire the Americans!

When my child was bitten by a dog (a small one that got scared of the child’s brutal approach, even to pet it), I taught my child to be more careful when approaching others because the dogs are like people, some that are more afraid, scared, some braver and willing or learning to bear an approach. Later, since my child wasn’t afraid by dogs, she got bitten by a friend’s dog that she knew well. I told her that each one is different and she insists to play when that dogs wants to do something else (like hiding its bone) she might get misunderstood and get some consequences. Even though I was worried about my child, I laughed and asked the dog to be vaccinated in order not to have gotten any disease from my child. I let my Canadian neighbour friend to deal alone with his dog without feeling to ever accuse him… The child is not afraid not even now by dogs but she learned to approach them differently. I am proud of my child (and of me!) because of that!

My PTSD has erupted and developed here; where, after emigrating, I thought that I would be safe and the big stress was gone. But my child and I was threatened again by white “Christian” males, (I am white and born Christian too!) Even though the danger and the background stress weren’t as bad than maybe in the past, I had a breakdown diagnosed PTSD… because I let myself hope for better!! But when I saw the same could happen to me with the second child (that I thought I “saved” from worse!) immigrating in one of the most developed and tolerant countries on Earth; I simply couldn’t take it! We had started to recover, and then we were threatened again and again and even though it wasn’t as bad; it affected us. The last time was by a Muslim family! For more than a year we had nightmares (mostly my child who trusted them and treated them as any other human being because I am against any discrimination and respect the differences too!) That time I knew a few nice Muslims and I purposely get closer with more to show to my child that not all of them are the same and it doesn’t matter what religion, country, skin or eye, hair colour has someone… It wasn’t easy for me… but I did what I thought it was “fair”!

Sometimes I fear people who do not have a mental diagnosis more than those who have one and they are already under some control!

I would never want to be a psychiatrist or psychologist and I would not recommend it even to my child if they would not have more conditions to release their stress. Or do they have to be supermen and superwomen?! They are human beings like anyone else but under much, much more daily added stress! In Europe (I don’t think that only in my native country) any psychiatrist, psychologist who dealt with clients/ patients has to do (yes, it’s mandatory) his/her weekly hour of therapy! And like teachers, they work less than others! I don’t think that the latter is possible anymore and the increased level of stress pushed more people to need their services.

I think we should all start to judge someone after what someone is doing and less about who is (discrimination has so many facets when you do not think of differences!). There are no excuses and no one, who is trying to analyze “why” something happened, could be accused of “finding excuses”

I was abused but that’s not giving me any right to abuse others! If I abuse and people find “why” that doesn’t mean they absolve me of my fault!

A crime is a tragedy no matter what and how someone reached there and because of others that were affected too! No matter what, it’s our fault too and we have to see “why” a tragedy happens as no one grows up or lives alone… if it was so who would affect someone back then?! Usually people are reacting to someone else than the one that should deserve that… just venting their frustration. If we don’t stop that we shall have a PTSD-affected- humanity! Isn’t it enough that there are already people (big part of populations) that have that syndrome or disorder? Sometimes I think that Israeli might be one! With so many wars and conflicts we can see a lot of states and people from those states already there, too.
It seems that Americans are not a race of “bullying” how others like to present them! But as I said, when arguing with some of my European, or from other continents, friends… the Americans’ people, values and theories have to first be admired and follow up in other states and then, when everybody starts to point to the immigrant root, the Americans wake up to appreciate their own people, theories, values – now validated and already used and highly transformed by others… Strange! There are centuries of such things and they still don’t learn their lesson. But no one is prophet in his own country, are they?!
It’s funny to see that outside U.S., people tends to see the Americans as a race… as they are treating their own people inside their country; no wonder they will prefer to say Deming was Romanian, Franklin was Canadian, and so on; instead of saying they were Americans! I wonder if Einstein ever moved, worked in (and died in) U.S.!!

If Americans run to the roots even for those born there, when something bad happens, why not to do the same for what they are doing good?!
“And so it goes” by John Denver! Or maybe “Forest Lawn”!

==============================================

Is Ft. Hood like Columbine? That’s the gist of the question I’ve been asked repeatedly the past 24 hours, in various incarnations. It’s a natural question, which has been running through my own head incessantly. My brain is about to bust with all the apparent parallels to Columbine, Virginia Tech and 9/11, and the startling differences to each as well. But the only responsible answer to that question is I don‘t know yet.

If we have learned anything from these tragedies, is that we won’t get a firm handle on why for weeks, months or even years. At this distance from Oklahoma City, we were convinced it was the work of Arabs or Muslims, and what was the difference between those two anyway? The Columbine killers’ journals–far and away the most revealing evidence–were released in 2006, more than seven years after the murders.

The Ft. Hood perpetrator appears pretty transparent. The “obvious” factors include:
- His religion
- His ethnicity
- The ridicule he endured for each
- His profession as a soldier
- His profession as a psychiatrist
- His exposure to guns
- Relentless exposure to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in his patients
- Opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
- Imminent deployment there

We have heard a lot of facts related to each of those factors already. I expect that most will turn to be true. Historically, we get the what right pretty fast. But we have a terrible record on why. An oddsmaker could reasonably predict that some of those items will prove relevant and others true but unrelated to the crime. The problem is predicting which is which.

If we guess now, the myths will be us forever…

Read more: Is Ft. Hood Like Columbine?
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/nurtureshock/archive/2009/11/06/is-ft-hood-like-columbine-guest-blogger-dave-cullen.aspx

Part 2: Military ruling on advancement strict training, not taking 6 years to complete a 4 year college, and still advance to Major in 6 years??? It shouldn’t have happened.

Part 3:He has shown every sign of an Islam Jihad Radical—– a loner, no close family ties, acclaimed Islam first, American second—premeditated attack on Americans, knowing would be too obvious acting as a suicide bomber ( all strapped up, so—- became a suicide shooter with same intentional end results expecting he’d be shot away instead of bombed away to that 70 virgins gloryland???? they are promised??

But—he survived, what next??

Looking at the ‘wicked’ problem (Rittel Webber) requires effortful thinking and is probably the reason why alot of people find it easier to conclude that the guy was an ‘islamist psycho’ and be done with it. Sure this might an explanation. It is simply one rationalisation.

It seems that people hanker after rationalisations rather than explanations. After all as Jeff Goldblum said in The Chill – they’re more important than sex…ever gone a day without a rationalisation!

The desire is to define these kinds of actions within a framework of “insanity” but psychosis is rarely the culprit. This article may have more information in that regard. Note that in some respects, Hasan’s actions fall into the categories of political and disgruntled employee.

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One of the difficulties in gathering data on the mass murderer is that he or she often commits suicide. The terrorists involved in the World Trade Center and Pentagon tragedies died when the planes they hijacked hit their objectives. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris committed suicide after their mass murder at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999. Therefore some information about types listed in this entry is limited.

Kelleher outlines seven categories of mass murderers who have somewhat different motivations and profiles. These categories include perverted love, politics and hate, revenge, sexual homicide, execution, psychotic, and unexplained. Ronald and Stephen Holmes, in their book Mass Murder in the United States (2000), provide a different typology. Holmes and Holmes use some types from Park Dietz, including the family annihilator, the disgruntled type, and the set-and-run type. The authors then added the disciple killer, the ideological mass murderer, the disgruntled employee, and the school shooter. Both Holmes and Holmes’ and Kelleher’s typologies were created before the attack on the World Trade Center and the rash of suicide bombings; however, the string of early-twenty-first-century events falls under Kelleher’s category of politics and hate. …

Meloy and Hempel found that 70 percent of their sample were termed “loners,” 62 percent abused alcohol or drugs; many were preoccupied by violent fantasies; 42 percent had a credible history of violence against a person, animal, or property; and 43 percent were bullied by others. Forty-one percent had a history of at least one sexual-affectional bond with a female. Only 23 percent had a history of psychiatric hospitalization or at least one visit to a mental health professional, and only 6 percent showed evidence of psychosis.

Source: Psychological Profiles of Mass Murderers
http://www.deathreference.com/Ke-Ma/Mass-Killers.html

Signed,
Very Confused at Ticker’s Statement!!! :-/

Thank you Spiritual Emergency – very nicely put.

I didn’t see it as an attempt to portray him as a victim as much as it was to try to understand his motivations. As for him being mentally ill — anyone who walks in amidst other human beings and without provocation or regard for their humanity, begins shooting at them — cannot possibly be considered mentally well. Hasan went over the deep end. In addition to expressing any grief and outrage we have to ask ‘Why?’. The purpose of doing so is an attempt to find meaning in his actions as well as try and prevent something similar from happening again.

I also know that when these kind of events occur the perpetrator’s actions can become inflated by our own grief and fears, casting the appearance they were far more skilled, far more capable, and far more powerful than they really were. Today I see reports that the Taliban/Al-Queda are claiming links to this action and why wouldn’t they? They can twist it into something that serves their purpose — inspiring fear and stripping people of their sense of safety.

It’s frightening to consider that Hasan was part of a much larger network but I don’t want any potential fears to be used against me by those who can benefit from fanning and inflaming their inflation. This is part of what motivates my own actions to better understand what has happened and why. I need reliable information — not conjecture, speculation, bias, prejudice, assumption — so I can make a rational evaluation of risk. The goal is not to be fearless, it’s to be fearful only when it is appropriate to actually be afraid.

My own feelings at this time are that Hasan’s behaviors are more consistent with a mass-shooter like Cho than a suicide bomber. If Hasan had walked into that building with explosives strapped to his chest I would likely arrive at a different conclusion.