Fort Hood tragedy seen through personal political lenses
The tragic shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, shouldn鈥檛 have a political dimension to it. Yet within hours it was being portrayed that way.
From one side, the alleged shooter -- Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist -- is a victim of "Pre-traumatic Stress Disorder" who flipped out because as a doctor treating combat veterans he had to deal with the horrors of an unjust war. From the other side, he鈥檚 a Muslim terrorist, an Arab (though born in the United States) plotting and carrying out his own murderous jihad.
In his Saturday, President Obama urged Americans to see beyond the ethnicity of the alleged attacker. Speaking of those serving in the US military, he said:
鈥淭hey are descendants of immigrants, and immigrants themselves. They reflect the diversity that makes this America. But what they share is patriotism like no other. What they share is a commitment to country that has been tested and proved worthy. What they share is the same unflinching courage, unblinking compassion and uncommon camaraderie that the soldiers and civilians of Fort Hood showed America and showed the world.鈥�
But WorldNetDaily was a radical Islamic organization in England hailing Maj. Hasan as 鈥渁n officer and a gentleman.鈥�
And the conservative Web site even charged that Hasan had played an 鈥渁dvisory role in President Barack Obama's transition into the White House鈥� thinly based on Hasan鈥檚 having attended an event at George Washington University at which corporate executives, academic researchers, and officials from previous administrations discussed homeland security.
Others on the right that Muslim US military officers might need 鈥渟pecial debriefings鈥� or 鈥渟pecial screenings.鈥�
In a piece headlined 鈥淭he massacre at Fort Hood and Muslim soldiers with attitude,鈥� conservative columnist Michelle Malkin 鈥淚鈥檝e said it many times over the years and it bears repeating again as cable TV talking heads ask in bewilderment how all the red flags Hasan raised could have been ignored: Political correctness is the handmaiden of terror.鈥�
Meanwhile, the debate rages over whether Hasan -- aside from his religion, ethnicity, and what he鈥檚 reported to have said about two US wars in Muslim countries -- himself was a victim of combat-related stress. Even though he鈥檇 never been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan himself, presumably as an Army psychiatrist he would have treated and counseled many combat veterans physically broken and mentally battered by war.
鈥淚magine every day trying to help young men and women somehow put their lives back together despite their night terrors, flashbacks, and chronic sleeplessness,鈥� psychologist and full-time therapist Todd Essig. 鈥淲hile you reach out to help, they mistrust your every move and respond with hair-trigger tempers, not to mention all the physical symptoms, alienation, and hopelessness. Surrounded by thoughts of suicide -- and homicide -- you try and keep faith with the honor and challenge of providing care.鈥�
On a New York Times blog site for war veterans, Vietnam vet and former Marine
鈥淐ould it be that the psychiatrist we want to hate saw the unbearable suffering of warriors he was tasked to treat? Could it be that he identified with the suffering of those he treated at Walter Reed Army Hospital? Did he become one of us, another soul tortured by war鈥檚 anguish? I cannot forgive this man who betrayed us but I must try and understand him nonetheless.鈥�
Many of the online comments to Mr. Kinney鈥檚 blog post expressed outrage that Hasan鈥檚 alleged attack should be seen this way. One person wrote: 鈥淵ou want to understand him? Here鈥檚 the explanation: at some point, he became a radical Muslim terrorist. Period. Whether that was brought on by PTSD is irrelevant鈥�.鈥�
On Huffington Post, Kamran Pasha describes his conversation with another Muslim soldier at Fort Hood, a 22-year Army man and Iraq combat veteran who recently converted to Islam. This soldier (referred to only as 鈥淩ichard鈥�) knew Hasan. (a Hollywood filmmaker and the author of 鈥淢other of the Believers,鈥� a novel on the birth of Islam) that he now believes Hasan鈥檚 alleged murderous act was motivated both by religious radicalism as well as having worked in a situation where combat stress was always present.
As more becomes known about what happened at Fort Hood -- and, most importantly, why -- many Americans may be less likely to see the tragedy in the context of their own opinions about the war and those of all backgrounds called to fight it.
See also:
War comes fiercely home: Blow by blow of Fort Hood rampage
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