The highly disturbing mass murder at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas reveals the obvious truth and some more obscure ones. Surely there is no surprise anymore when a person kills because of some religious conviction. This has gone on as long as humans have had religious beliefs of any kind, from the most primitive societies to the most advanced ones. What is more intriguing is what truths about the event are not so easily diagnosed and accepted.
The Muslim Army major and psychiatrist was protected from recognition and control by authorities because of two major attributes. It is abundantly evident that his belief about the wrongheadedness of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars was no secret. So too was his views about the disastrous impacts of the wars on other Muslims. The fact that he was himself a Muslim protected him, a kind of reverse racism that now is often part of American culture.
A 9/11 era of Muslim terrorists obviously made it difficult for his colleagues and superiors to face the facts, or at least carefully and deliberately examine his thinking, beliefs and behaviors more critically. He may have been a closet terrorist and murderer, but that was because the door to his closet was intentionally kept shut by a great many people fearful of being condemned themselves for picking on or attacking a Muslim.
Not only did his Muslim status protect him from legitimate examination, but it seems likely that it helped him obtain a promotion to major after only a short time after his extensive Army-paid educational activities when he actually performed professionally and before he served in the current battlegrounds. The latter would place him in a position where he could be contributing more directly to killing Muslims which is why he wanted out of the Army.
The fact that he was also a psychiatrist also protected him. Other medical doctors clearly refused to look closely at his psychological makeup, his rather unhealthy lifestyle (aside from his religious behavior), namely his anti-social characteristics. This was a man without extensive human relationships either in his professional or personal lives. Even his relationships with his patients seem clearly to have been both unusual at times and improper. He was one sick and lonely psychiatrist that clearly needed extensive therapy and counseling. How could the Army medical establishment not see all of this and take appropriate action?
Apparently the answer is that the Army has an enormous need for psychiatrists to provide care for an army of very mentally disturbed soldiers harmed by their war experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. In other words, so much mental illness among soldiers caused the Army to ignore the mental illness of one of their own psychiatrists.
If justice is to be honestly and deeply pursued, then a rather large number of Army officers should be held accountable for creating and maintaining a system that allowed the killer's Muslim and medical credentials to keep him safe from examination that could have prevented the massacre in Texas. The Army had invested a huge amount of taxpayer money in educating the killer and it apparently wanted a return on its investment. Killing US soldiers is the return they got.
And here is something for ordinary Americans to consider: The killer psychiatrist had a peculiar but not necessarily insane kind of logic. He could justify killing his fellow US soldiers as serving God just as easily as the US government has justified the killing of so many thousands of the same US soldiers in the two current wars, as well as Muslims. These two wars have nothing really to do with fighting an enemy that currently and truly threatens the US. What are President Obama and so many other elected government officials killing for? What an ugly and terrible truth to face.
Considering that the lonely Muslim psychiatrist killer openly stated that he was a Muslim first and an American second, he surely believed that killing soldiers for his God was preferable to US soldiers killing more Muslims for their government. That compulsion made him a terrorist but not insane, which means he should not get off from being executed for his crimes. Nor should the many Army officers get off from letting him get the opportunity to kill.
Joel S. Hirschhorn has succeeded as: a full professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison; a senior staffer, U.S. Congress (Office of Technology Assessment); head of an environmental consulting company; Director of Environment, Energy and Natural Resources, National Governors Association; now an author and consultant. Recent books are: Sprawl Kills - How Blandburbs Steal Your Time, Health and Money, and Delusional Democracy - Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government. He has published hundreds of articles in newspapers, magazines, journals and on many web magazine sites. He has given hundreds of talks at a wide range of conferences worldwide. He focuses on American culture, politics and government, and health issues.
Former classmates in a master’s program at a military college said that Major Hasan had expressed anti-American views, justified suicide bombings and contended that Islamic law took precedence over the Constitution, but that their complaints to faculty about his views did not result in any action against Major Hasan.
I had dealings with a psychiatrist back in the 1970's when I ran a business. For the most part they are evil and underhanded persons who think they are better than anyone else. interesting article. Respond to this comment
I recommend Eugene Robinson's column in the Wash. Post where he also sees the issues as I do, including:
"The system is not doing what it's supposed to do," Army doctor Val
Finnell told the Associated Press. Finnell, who studied with Hasan,
complained to higher-ups about Hasan's "anti-American" rants and his
stated view that the United States was conducting a war against Islam.
"He at least should have been confronted about these beliefs, told to
cease and desist, and to shape up or ship out."
Very well reasoned article. hasn't religion got a lot to answer for! The Crusades against the heathen weren't that nice either and so these conflicts continue to brew.
Read Joyce Dunn's "Justifiable Murder" here on SearchWarp. The radical Islamists don't have the monopoly on religious extremism. There is plenty of it to accommodate people of the Christian faith, as well, even if Joel somehow forgot to mention it here.
Religion too often becomes pathological. The same religion that leads one person to personal liberty and philanthropy leads another down a hellish path of self-absorption and perversion of doctrine. Look at the twisted evil of Reverend Fred Phelps, Christian psycho-terrorist.
SearchWarp is an interesting microcosm of these different aspects of religion. Where some religious people seem to enjoy the fullness of their God-given life, others seem shallow and imprisoned by dogma.
"He was one sick and lonely psychiatrist that clearly needed extensive therapy and counseling." - I think this sentence is key to understanding these actions, rather than Major Hasan's Muslim-ness.
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