The wisest and most troubling observations I've seen were published in Truthout:
The soldier says that the mood on the base is “very grim,” and that even before this incident, troop morale has been very low.
“I’d say it’s at an all-time low - mostly because of Afghanistan now,” he explained. “Nobody knows why we are at either place, and I believe the troops need to know why they are there, or we should pull out, and this is a unanimous feeling, even for folks who are pro-war.”
The shocking story of a soldier killing five of his comrades does not come as a surprise when we consider that the military has, for years now, been sending troops with untreated PTSD back into the US occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.It will be argued that Hasan could not be suffering from PTSD because he was not under stress at the time of the shooting. But in his professional capacity, he often had to deal with trauma survivors -- and it is not uncommon for those working with psychiatric patients to begin to show some of the same symptoms.
According to an Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center analysis, reported in the Denver Post in August 2008, more than “43,000 service members -- two-thirds of them in the Army or Army Reserve -- were classified as nondeployable for medical reasons three months before they deployed” to Iraq.
Mark Thompson also has reported in Time magazine, “Data contained in the Army’s fifth Mental Health Advisory Team report indicate that, according to an anonymous survey of US troops taken last fall, about 12 percent of combat troops in Iraq and 17 percent of those in Afghanistan are taking prescription antidepressants or sleeping pills to help them cope.”
In April 2008, the RAND Corporation released a stunning report revealing, “Nearly 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan - 300,000 in all - report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression, yet only slightly more than half have sought treatment.”
Beyond that, I do not think it unreasonable to consider the stresses placed on a Muslim facing deployment to a Muslim country where Americans are not wanted. (Nothing in the previous sentence should be considered exculpatory, of course.)
For an excellent background briefing on Afghnistan -- the secret history of how it happened, and what we should do now -- I strongly recommend a series of interviews with Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, authors of Invisible History: Afghanistan's Untold Story. Fitzgerald and Gould are fascinating speakers with a wealth of truly new information and insights. The interviews are here (#685, #683, and #680).
16 comments:
First off, any counselor that takes on the symptoms of those they counsel is dangerously incompetent and needs to be in another line of work. Secondly, I'm a bit confused that somebody would be so agonized about being sent into a situation where they may have to kill for what they consider an invalid reason...so they go out and systematically gun down any complete stranger they come across.
I hope they hang this scumbag.
Ummm - you've become obsessed with tea party movement people. Apparently now, the tea partiers are responsible for all that ails the country. If there's a racist reaction to the ft. hood shooting - those are tea partiers. Unemployment is highest on record, north of 10% - must be because of teapartiers. Clooney's movie flunks at the box office - it's all those tea partiers out protesting instead of going to see good film.
Jesu Christo - there is no more evidence that people who consider themselves "tea partiers" are going to react with racism to the ft. hood shooting than there is that your average democrat. There certainly is none in your post.
But, evidence - as opposed to your own knee jerk prejudice - doesn't seem to be the basis for your analysis of who a tea partier is or not. All I can say is if you want "anti-Obama" liberals to join you in turning away from the tea party movement, you probably have to do better than making prejudiced, over-generalized statements and labeling them as a crude sexual act.
You know - sort of like how you told the progs last year that they were nuts to think they could persuade people to support Obama by insulting them.
It's sad that when something like this happens, the bigotry that lays hidden in the darkest recesses of our minds, springs forth like a gusher!
People snap. Those that snap come in all colors, shapes, sex's and yes...religions. What happened at Ft.Hood was devastating but I fear it has given the bigots among us another reason to scream at the top of their lungs that "Moo-slims" are savages!
Soon, the wacky right and their enablers at "Fixed news" will be using this as a rally cry .
Bush should have reinstated the draft if he was going to fight two wars.
Jay:
"First off, any counselor that takes on the symptoms of those they counsel is dangerously incompetent and needs to be in another line of work."
Perhaps, but the phenomenon has long been noted. I even recall reading about it in my Psych 101 textbook, lo these many years ago.
"Secondly, I'm a bit confused that somebody would be so agonized about being sent into a situation where they may have to kill for what they consider an invalid reason...so they go out and systematically gun down any complete stranger they come across."
What's confusing? He went buggo.
Considering the fact that we live under a crazy foreign policy made by crazy politicians, I'm surprised that more soldiers don't go crazy.
Anon, you keep saying the same thing, and I keep ignoring your advice. The tea baggers are right-wing scum who deserve no sympathy. They exemplify why I fear rebellion: Any revolution in this country is likely to be fascist.
The incident is like a nightmarish addendum to Catch-22. For me, it highlights yet another ongoing atrocity--how horribly we are abusing our warriors.
I'm some kinda peacenik, but it's heartbreaking to see this bravest and most vulnerable class of citizens being so terribly used.
According to the Hindus--whom I love because they don't sugarcoat things--we are living in the age of Kali. It's Kali Yuga, a dark and grim age, when humankind is very far from God. It means Hell will be in session for another 20,000 years.
Check out this description of Kali Yuga, written 5000 years ago:
Avarice and wrath will be common. Humans will openly display animosity towards each other. People will have thoughts of murder for no justification, and they will see nothing wrong with that mind-set. Lust will be viewed as being socially acceptable, and sexual intercourse will be seen as the central requirement of life, with the result that even 13 to 16-year old girls will get pregnant. Sin will increase exponentially, whilst virtue will fade and cease to flourish. People will take vows only to break them soon after. People will become addicted to intoxicating drinks and drugs. Men will find their jobs stressful and will go to retreats to escape their work. Gurus will no longer be respected and their students will attempt to injure them.
On the cheery side, they say Kali Yuga is an excellent period during which to achieve spiritual growth. With 20,000 years to mess around with, we'll all achieve enlightenment--if we don't go mad or get hit by a stray bullet first.
Aw, Joe. And here I thought there was reasonable thinking on this blog.
I'm one of those "right-wing tea-baggers"--a registered Democrat until a year ago--whose taxes have gone through the roof and whose business is hanging on by a thread, and I resent being called "scum."
So long.
I am trying to understand how one can go from being a Democrat to joining forces with teabaggers. I can understand shifting to the right or left as a result of betrayal or events that question one's long held assumptions, but to swing 180 degrees is like cutting your nose off.....
It is also interesting that the same type of person would think nothing of calling someone like major Hassan scum. Imagine growing up in the US as a Muslim with an Arabic name, living through 9-11 and war on terror, being in the Army and having your patriotism questioned if not by your comrades but at least by the public, the Right and the MSM, have your God and religion and by extension yourself called savage on the one hand and on the other have everything you have been taught about American exceptionalism, American Democracy and election proccess, love of Freedom, religous tolerance, just wars and regard and respect for troops and their sacrifice, American justice and rule of law all dragged through the mud by the very people you are supposed to be protecting and......... you flip and go apeshit. What's so hard about understanding that?
Here is what is easy to understand, beeta. A man who took two oaths; one to do no harm and another to serve the country that provided him with the ability to accept the first. That man gathers weapons and sets out to kill as many unarmed comrades as he is able. He broke his vows to his profession, his country, and his God. Whatever real or imagined hardship you think he may have endured because of his name and his religion...it is nothing compared to what he has dealt out to others.
He deserves to die in disgrace at the end of a rope.
Beeta said:
"I am trying to understand how one can go from being a Democrat to joining forces with teabaggers."
Beeta, not all "teabaggers" (how I despise that term) are wingnut Republicans. Many of us are independents and even Democrats who have been squeezed to the breaking point. We're struggling to pay $1,5000-a-month expenses on income of $1,200, with no end in sight. We're exhausted, broke and scared.
I am not a far-right screwball. I've marched both locally and in Washington in protest of the war in Iraq and traveled a thousand miles to be a poll monitor for MoveOn. If I do that for social issues, why should I not do it for economic ones? Does being a social liberal make me ineligible to be a fiscal conservative?
As for Major Hassan, you can talk till the cows come home about stress and second-hand trauma but I'm not buying. Nothing...NOTHING can excuse that man's actions. Twelve innocents are dead because of him. "Scum" is too nice a term.
Jay,
I am not defending what Major Hassan did. I am objecting to the idea that he is different than anyone else that went crazy and killed people based on his religion.
And speaking of breaking oaths, how many oaths did Bush break? How many did Cheney break? And Rumsfeld? How many innocent people died as a result of those broken oaths. I don't see many on the left or right shouting "Die Scum"!
Creeper,
Why would you think that I would ever object to you being a fiscal conservative or for that matter protesting anything?
Protests organized by people like Michelle Buckman and Dick Army and the rest of the far right loonies are:
-not grass roots
-are financed by coorporations/organizations with clear anti regular Joe agendas
-used to channel people's anger and frustrations toward fake/imaginary foes to deflect attention from the real culprits
-used to propogate mis-information/lies about our Constitution, forign policy, proposed bills in Congress...etc
And these rallies have come to be known as "teaparty rallies".
You can be for anything, protest anything, but when you do it under the banner of the "tea parties", you will become part of the movement that misleads, misinforms, misdirects, socially/ economically/millitarily abuses not only Americans but all of the world.
Beeta, there's nobody that despised Bush and his cronies more than I; but guess what, he's gone. See any change the last year. I sure haven't. I certainly don't see any objections from the Democrats who suddenly seem to have forgotten what we hated so much in the last presidency. From the beginning, Obots have labeled us racist and loonies. We are not going away. We are growing in frustration and anger. Be that as it may...exactly what is the difference between a man going around shooting people yelling "Alla Akbar" and a fellow going into a church and blowing away an abortion doctor? Both are scum in my outdated liberal morality and I'll be damned if I will spend one second defending them over the blood of innocents that they have shed.
Perry, give us a break. What is the source for this supposed 5000 year old translation? As if. Ancient people bemoaning 16 year old mothers? Hello. Normal marriage age back when.
Yeah Perry, give us the source of this alleged Kaleeyoubahhoo! Doesn't sound Amurehkin, if you ask me. And truth be told, Lerner and Loewe actually changed their names from Singh & Choudry just before they penned the famous pean to pedo (and few know this, but Rajesh Khanna recorded the ditty before Maurice Chevaliuer, for the Bolly-play "Aloo Gigipadam")
Jesus Zee! are you that ignorant of the rest of the world as you surely are about ancient India? Do you think that the western ideas of women as chattel was a planetary norm? Were you aware that in Vedic society women chose their husbands (Swayamvara), were allowed multiple husbands, and that child marriage was verboten?
Have you ever heard of an epic book (or play or great film by Peter Brook) called The Mahabarata?? Why do you think they wrote of the power of women, and how they were not only equal to men, but superior? 2,500 years later, who is the biggest saint on the scene? A chick! Named Gargi Vachaknavi, not only was she spiritual leader but was one of the 9 guides for the Raja Janaka. Now please, you think she was a sexualized 13 year old? ...just because in Europe only adult MALE Athenians citizens who had completed their training as ephebes had the right to vote, it means nothing about ancient India.
Things got fucked up for women commencing in the Indian Middle Ages, and continued to deteriorate as other cultures invaded (Muslim, Christian, British...) that's when you see child marriage, Purdah, Jauhar, the Zenana... all that crap. But you cannot say that the Vedas, or vedic society lived that way! Fuck. That's like saying Thomas Jefferson has a black lover, therefore Gerald Ford had black lovers. Same thing.
Unless you have some proof that Vedic society was misogynist, Zee, you are talking straight outta your ass.
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