Falsehood has more consequences than the revelation of personal insincerity. What happened at Fort Hood was no kind of "tragedy." It was a criminal act, of the terrorist sort, performed by a man acting upon known Islamist motives. To present the perpetrator himself as a kind of "victim" -- a man emotionally distressed by his impending assignment to Afghanistan or Iraq -- is to misrepresent the reality.
This man was a professional psychiatrist, assigned to help soldiers cope with traumas. Is this the profile of a man with no control over his own emotions? It appears he had hired a lawyer to get him out of the military before his deployment overseas. Is this consistent with spontaneity?
He reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar!" before opening fire on American soldiers. Would that perhaps offer a little hint of the actual motive? He shot about 40 people, over 10 minutes, with two pistols, neither of them military issue. Might that perhaps suggest premeditation?
There's more. Read the whole thing.
4 comments:
Since when does premeditation (I didn't hear any news stories insisting that it wasn't premeditated) negate mental issues? (Remember the Virgina Tech shooting?)
Didn't we learn anything from the Great Fox News Debate of '09? Cable news is in the business of selling news. The slant that FN WILL embrace is the "anti-elitest, anti-Muslim" slant. Big freaking revelation that this story would lean that way. Other networks sell their story with the "crocodile tears." It's all crap that forces citizens to sift through information for the real truth.
"We should be annoyed by attempts to manipulate us." To read this coming from some cranky old codger promoting FOX NEWS four paragraphs later is laughable.
Delving into the Hasan case isn't going to uncover any terrorist cells in our country. The problem with doing so, as Warren suggests we ought to, is that doing so promotes more hatred and discrimanation toward Muslim Americans.
And WHY would journalists be expected to investigate this anyway? They're supposed to be reporting. Does he think that the Federal goverment ISN'T looking into all possible motives for the shooting? Honestly.
The following is MY speculation, only I'm confident and honest enough to CALL it speculation. Dude is lonely and unbalanced to begin with, embraces religion after a period of mourning the deaths of his parents, and after years of counseling PTSD victims, becomes absolutely terrified of his own imminent deployment. Proceeds to do anything he can to get out of said deployment.
People do a lot of things to get out of deployments. They say they're suicidal, they say they're gay, they say they're pregnant, whatever. Hasan is Muslim, and he evidently saw capitalizing on our fear and hatred as a rational response to getting deployed. Why does he have mental issues? Because shooting 40 people is not rational.
Since when does premeditation (I didn't hear any news stories insisting that it wasn't premeditated) negate mental issues? (Remember the Virgina Tech shooting?)
It doesn't. I don't think we're going to disagree about that, Amanda.
Delving into the Hasan case isn't going to uncover any terrorist cells in our country.
Well, we don't know that, do we? Contact with a radical cleric in Yemen is typical? Hanging out in the same mosque that the 9/11 terrorists favored means nothing? Maybe, maybe not. Guess I'm not as blithe about those sorts of details as other people.
The problem with doing so, as Warren suggests we ought to, is that doing so promotes more hatred and discrimination toward Muslim Americans.
We keep waiting for this hatred and discrimination against Muslim Americans and it doesn't materialize. This guy became radicalized somehow, and that radicalism, combined with whatever his personal mental state was, led to the deaths of 13 people. It would be helpful to know why, don't you think? Or does it not matter?
And WHY would journalists be expected to investigate this anyway? They're supposed to be reporting.
How does one report without investigating? Print a press release? Or just regurgitate what the government officials tell them? I suspect there was a time when you wouldn't have been satisfied with that level of reportage.
Does he think that the Federal government ISN'T looking into all possible motives for the shooting? Honestly.
The government is investigating now. There's ample evidence that various people in various agencies knew Hasan was trouble, but for reasons that we don't yet know, nothing was done. Why is that? Wouldn't you like to know? I would. Someone, or rather a series of someones, dropped the ball on this deal. It would be helpful to know why it happened, if nothing else to minimize the chance of something like this ever happening again.
Amanda if a psychologist walks on mental illness which by the way will never happen with this case, I'd be surprised.
Whether this man was a one man jihad, or if he had help from others (these things will become apparent as his date with 69 virgins didn't happen, or at least has been delayed) there is clearly an element of terrorism and murder based on his faith and beliefs.
There will be a lot of blaming going on over the next several months but it won't bring back one dead soldier.
When these events happen, I am more troubled by the lack of outrage by the supposed moderates of Moslem faith and the fact that in certain areas of the world they dance in the streets over such incidents.
Mr. D - Yes, there is investigative journalism. I agree. What I meant (and could have stated more clearly), is that there is a difference between investigating and speculating. Too often "investigating" isn't actually that. Warren is commenting on the tone of the media, and saying that the it should be something different, because it doesn't match what he can only guess to be true. The evidence he listed wasn't proof of anything - and I don't believe expressing compassion for anyone involved will serve to obscure whatever facts are revealed.
(Did you ever see that segment on discrimination against Arabs that was done on that TV show - "What Would You Do?" It's on YouTube - I think it's pretty illuminating. )
Anonymous - Muslims are horrified when someone from their community commits such an act - I've found their stuff on the internet, anyway.
I don't think it was his religion that convinced him to go on a one-man jihad mission - it sounds like he sought out representatives of extreme anti-Westerners within Islam himself. There is an important difference.
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