A terrible crime; an horrendous tragedy.
But leave it to fringe right-wingers, ever on the lookout for anything they can exploit, to leap at the opportunity to use the incident for political gain. Even before all the details of the incident were known, shrieks of "Terrorism!" and "Islamic extremists!" were ringing in the public ears.
Leading the charge is (who else?) the repulsive senator from Connecticut, Joe Lieberman, who was on Fox News Sunday with this money quote: "We don't know enough to say now, but there are very, very strong warning signs here that Dr. Hasan had become an Islamist extremist and, therefore, that this was a terrorist act."
In support of Lieberman's conjecture, it is being reported today that, in 2001, Hasan attended the same mosque in Virginia as two of the 9-11 hijackers. There are also reports that Hasan attempted to contact "al-Qaeda" before his rampage.
Lieberman's verbal dysentery continued. He said he would initiate a Senate investigation to uncover Hasan's motives and to determine "whether the Army missed warning signs." Now that's courage!
I have a couple questions:
- If Hasan, by virtue of being an "Islamist extremist" (according to Lieberman's definition), has committed an act of terrorism, does that mean that "Christian extremist" Scott Roeder who murdered Dr. George Tiller as the doctor attended a service at his church also committed a "terrorist act?"
- And, if so, will brave Joe Lieberman initiate an investigation into Roeder's associations and contacts?
Over the years, I have befriended many Muslims. Last weekend, I had occasion to speak with several of them about the issue. When I expressed concern that there will be a backlash against Muslims in this country, each of them agreed with me. They are expecting it.
And Joe Lieberman, the mealy-mouthed, self-serving pig that he is, has not disappointed. Nor, of course, have the tea-bag crowd. Trust me, they're just getting ramped up. They will be pointing to this incident for years to come as proof positive of the "danger" of Islam.
Listen, people: Major Hasan was a deranged killer with a gun, nothing more, nothing less. It is anything but helpful to have pigs like Lieberman using the tragedy to stoke fear against a particular demographic just to raise his political visibility.
Haven't we learned over the last 20 or so years that murderous shooting sprees by deranged killers is a recurring phenomenon in this country?
Shall we chronicle the carnage?
- February 26, 2009, Miramar Beach, Florida
- September 24, 2003, Cold Spring, Minnesota
- June 10, 2009, Washington, DC
- December 11, 2007, Colorado Springs, Colorado
- November 6, 2007, Omaha, Nebraska
- July 27, 2008, Powell, Tennessee
- April 20, 1999, Jefferson County, Colorado
- October, 2002, Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia
Let's face the facts: In this country, once or twice a year, somebody snaps and takes a gun (or guns) into a public place and starts randomly killing people. Sometimes the killer is a Muslim; sometimes the killer is a Christian. Sometimes the killer is a racist; sometimes the killer is a disillusioned teenager.
Symptoms of a world gone mad.
Or maybe it has always been this way.
I don't know.
***
Update: The family of one of the victims, Michael Cahill speaks out.People, that is truly Christian.
5 comments:
His job was a psychiatrist debriefing those returning from the horrors of war. His job over the last few years was to show empathy, concern and caring for those who are now permanently broken by the horrors of war. He broke because he was going to be sent to the source of these horrors, a source which he quite rightly despised. The cost of war is not simply counted in deaths and physical wounds, in fact I would say these pale into insignificance when held against the decades of mental pain by those who live through the experiences.
My last job was as a social worker in a low-income building in downtown Portland. I've had too many experiences of brave men weeping uncontrollably, beyond consolation at the things they have seen and done in Vietnam. The cost to these people is just appalling, and never stops, but I also paid a cost. Simply listening to these sorts of events made me so ill over time that it threatened my marriage and took me several years to mostly overcome. The effects of war effect not only those directly involved but their family, their friends, their counselors, their social workers, and they do so for decades.
I don't think it needs to be said that these killings are horrible and not forgivable. But the killer wasn't simply deranged, he was ill, broken, terrified, isolated and beyond seeing any good way out. That's what war does.
My heart and prayers go out to all the victims, the victims family and friends.
From all the news reports it appears this Major is a career military man and that in his current position for less than a year and was not going well. He did not want to be deployed and in fact wanted out of the Army, so he paid back his military student loans and hired an attorney.
The reason may have been that he was being harassed and called names like “camel jockey ”. I guess all that sensitivity training for those with bigotry tendencies are all for not. (Can training real change the way you were brought up?)
Another reason is called PTSD by proxy, the stress of treating PTSD in other soldiers make you go a little crazy yourself. Its even more stressful because most of the higher ranks don’t even believe in such thing as PTSD. Their denial prompts them to tell suffering soldiers to “drink it off.” Some civilians in the defense dept feel the same way no doubt IMO, it’s why hardly anything is mentioned of PTSD until one of these violent episodes occurs. These people see PTSD as a cop-out or an excuse. First we need to have an understanding that PTSD actually is real before we can ever hope to help treat it (does anyone believe that being shot at or killing your fellow man is not going to affect you in some way either then or in the future?). I guess with the high soldier suicide rate before and after deployment kinda takes care of the complaints from coming in (so those who said he should have just killed himself, well that’s already happening ). What real ticked me off when I heard that the military was trying to say that some soldiers coming back from this war with PTSD or other psychological disorders had “Pre-Existing Conditions” and that the military would not pay to treat them, I think it has been corrected but what a bunch of asses they break you and don’t want to pay, amazing.
The final issue is why does the military want to keep people in their ranks that no longer want to be there is it just sheer number? I mean is it ten percent, twenty percent. Is it that it is the only contract in the US that you can’t get out of unless to kill yourself or kill your fellow soldiers? It does not make any sense to me.
I guess the Major could just be another wacko like Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nicholas, of course McVeigh was executed and apparently because Nicholas became a Christian he received a life sentenced. I real think if he gets that far the Major will get the former and not in a million years the latter.
This is so messed up, hopefully they will make some changes that make sense.
Hey there Dade:
The need to lump all Muslims together is almost entirely a pathological existential need for right-wingers and their conservative attachments.
The framework for dehumanizing Muslims in this context is not new, it is merely a racist carryover as old as the republic itself ... even older.
Onward!
Ridwan
Maj. Hasan had, alledgely, been airiing his jihadist tendencies for quite sometime. Apparently, the FBI was aware of his attempts to communicate with a radical Immam by email. Why was this information not passed on to his superiors at Ft. Hood?
People should not confuse peaceful, REAL muslims with this sadly deranged individual. However, when someone expresses sympathy and/or agreement with jihadists AND they are in the military this must be examined. Perhaps, this sad incident is a result, at least to some extent, of political correctness run amok in our military.
His job was a psychiatrist debriefing those returning from the horrors of war. His job over the last few years was to show empathy, concern and caring for those who are now permanently broken by the horrors of war. He broke because he was going to be sent to the source of these horrors, a source which he quite rightly despised. The cost of war is not simply counted in deaths and physical wounds, in fact I would say these pale into insignificance when held against the decades of mental pain by those who live through the experiences.
My last job was as a social worker in a low-income building in downtown Portland. I've had too many experiences of brave men weeping uncontrollably, beyond consolation at the things they have seen and done in Vietnam. The cost to these people is just appalling, and never stops, but I also paid a cost. Simply listening to these sorts of events made me so ill over time that it threatened my marriage and took me several years to mostly overcome. The effects of war effect not only those directly involved but their family, their friends, their counselors, their social workers, and they do so for decades.
I don't think it needs to be said that these killings are horrible and not forgivable. But the killer wasn't simply deranged, he was ill, broken, terrified, isolated and beyond seeing any good way out. That's what war does.
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