The Slaughter at Fort Hood Is Not About One Individual

We Have Been Driving Our Soldiers to a Breaking Point

The Ft. Hood massacre is not about one soldier suddenly “snapping.”And whether Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was a devout Muslim or not is of little importance.

This tragedy calls attention to the fact that as we send young men and women into what many now realize are unwinnable wars where they will see unimaginable horrors, we are risking, not only their young bodies, but their minds.

Below, a post I wrote last year about how the U.S. Army has ignored the serious mental health problems of our soldiers.  Instead of helping them, it has attacked them, accusing them of “faking” mental health problems. In the post, I quote a February 2008 VFA report: “the leader of the mental health treatment clinic at Fort Drum asked soldiers not to discuss their mental health problems with people outside the base. Attempts to keep matters ‘in house’ foster an atmosphere of secrecy and shame,” the report observed “that is not conducive to proper treatment for combat-related mental health injuries.”

Attempts to keep matters ‘in house’ foster an atmosphere of secrecy and shame,” the report observed, “that is not conducive to proper treatment for combat-related mental health injuries.”

Ironically, Hasan was a psychiatrist who had chosen to join the army, where he received medical education and decided to specialize in helping soldiers suffering from mental health problems. He was fiercely opposed to the war.  If any of us had spent years working with soldiers who had been mentally maimed by the war, we might well feel as he did—especially if we discovered that the Army was not willing to give these soldiers the compassion and understanding that they so desperately needed.

The horror is that, rather than helping his fellow soldiers, in the end, Hasan took them with him.

Dr. Hasan would hardly seem an ideal candidate to send to Afghanistan. Nevertheless, after he received unsatisfactory reviews at Walter Reed Hospital (where he worked as a psychiatrist), he was assigned to Fort Hood-- and the army decided to ship him off to war. Some have suggested that this was his punishment for expressing his anti-war sentiment. (I know an officer who refused to become an army recruiter in the U.S, and was then went sent to Korea—for the third time—one month after his first child was born. Needless to say, he did not take wife and child with him. They may be separated for six years.)

After being told that he was going to be deployed, it seems that Hasan decided to end his life. Like many suicides, he first gave away  his possessions -- and then went on a killing spree, gunning down others who were preparing to deploy. Perhaps, in his tortured mind, he believed that he was sparing them from being sent to Hades.

Hasan is far from unique. These days, it is not just those who have been sent to war in the Middle East, but soldiers who have been told that they are going who begin to exhibit self-destructive behavior.  This evening I heard a young man on the evening news describe how he and fellow soldiers prepare to go to war, by drinking themselves “into a stupor . .  . a case of beer . . . liquor”  before “getting on the plane.”

Once they get there, a career officer told me some months ago: “Some of them use their weapons on themselves. They just go into the latrine . . ..”   He said that many of these suicides go unreported.

We still are not doing all we can to help our troops and veterans get the help they need.  As Christine Pelosi points out, :we currently have a Senate "hold" blocking passage of S. 1963, “The Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009” which could be helping troops and veterans cope with disability and trauma -what the American Legion calls "the invisible wounds of war." (Read more at  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-pelosi/fort-hood-killings-no-saf_b_348327.html&cp )

Here is the post that I wrote more than a year ago. What I wrote then would have come as no surprise to Hasan.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the Army Approaches a Breaking Point (February 25, 2008)

Since 9/11, one Army division has spent more time in Iraq than any other group of soldiers: the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, New York.

Over the past 6 years and and six months, their 2nd Brigade Combat Team (BCT) has been the most deployed brigade in the army. As of this month, the brigade had completed its fourth tour of Iraq. All in all, the soldiers of BCT have spent 40 months in Iraq.

At what cost?  According to a February 13 report issued by the Veterans for America Wounded Warrior Outreach Program, it is not just their bodies that have been maimed and, in some cases, destroyed. Many of theses soldiers  re suffering from severe mental health problems that have led to suicide attempts as well as spousal abuse and  alcoholism.

Meanwhile, the soldiers  of the 2nd BCT have been given too little time off in between deployments:
In one case they had only six months to mentally “re-set”  following an eight-month tour in Afghanistan–-before beginning a 12- month tour in Iraq.

Then, in April 2007, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates decided to extend Army tours in Iraq from 12 to 15 months—shortly after the BCT had passed what it assumed was its halfway mark in Iraq.

As the VFA report points out:  “Mental health experts have explained that ‘shifting the goalposts’ on a soldier’s deployment period greatly contributes to an increase in mental health problems.”

Perhaps it should not come as a surprise that, during its most recent deployment, the 2nd BCT suffered heavy casualties. “Fifty-two members of the 2nd BCT were killed in action (KIA),” the VFA reports and “270 others were listed as non-fatality casualties, while two members of the unit remain missing in action (MIA).”

This level of losses is unusual.  “On their most recent deployment,” the VFA report notes “members of the 2nd BCT were more than five times as likely to be killed as others who have been deployed to OEF and OIF and more than four times likely to be wounded.” One can only wonder to what degree depression and other mental health problems made them more vulnerable to attack.

When they finally returned to Fort Drum, these soldiers faced winter conditions that the report describes as “dreary, with snow piled high and spring still months away. More than a dozen soldiers reported low morale, frequent DUI arrests, and rising AWOL, spousal abuse, and rates of attempted suicide.  Soldiers also reported that given the financial realities of the Army, some of their fellow soldiers had to resort to taking second jobs such as delivering pizzas to supplement their family income.”

What has the army done to help the  troops at Fort Drum? Too little.

In recent months, VFA reports, it has been contacted by a number of soldiers based at Fort Drum who are concerned about their own mental health and the health of other members of their units. In response, VFA launched an investigation of conditions at Fort Drum, and what it found was shocking.

Soldiers told the VFA that “the leader of the mental health treatment clinic at Fort Drum asked them not to discuss their mental health problems with people outside the base. Attempts to keep matters ‘in house’ foster an atmosphere of secrecy and shame,” the report observed “that is not conducive to proper treatment for combat-related mental health injuries.”

The investigators also discovered that “some military mental health providers have argued that a number of soldiers fake mental health injuries to increase the likelihood that they will be deemed unfit for combat and/or for further military service.”

The report notes that a “conversation with a leading expert in treating combat psychological wounds” confirmed “that some military commanders at Fort Drum doubt the validity of mental health wounds in some soldiers, thereby undermining treatment prescribed by civilian psychiatrists ” at the nearby Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, NY.

“In the estimation of this expert, military commanders have undue influence in the treatment of soldiers with psychological wounds,” the report noted. “Another point of general concern for VFA is that Samaritan also has a strong financial incentive to maintain business ties with Fort Drum—a dynamic [that] deserves greater scrutiny.”

Because some soldiers do not trust Samaritan, the report reveals that a number of “soldiers have sought treatment after normal base business hours at a hospital in Syracuse, more than an hour’s drive from Watertown, . . .  because they feared that Samaritan would side with base leadership, which had, in some cases, cast doubt on the legitimacy of combat-related mental health wounds.

“ In one case,” the report continued, “after a suicidal soldier was taken to a Syracuse hospital, he was treated there for a week, indicating that his mental health concerns were legitimate. Unfortunately, mental health officials at Fort Drum had stated that they did not believe this soldier’s problems were bona fide.”

According to the VFA, the problem of military doctors refusing to back soldiers with mental health problems is widespread: “VFA’s work across the country has confirmed that soldiers often need their doctors to be stronger advocates for improved treatment by their commanders and comrades. For instance,  soldiers  need doctors who are willing to push back against commanders who doubt the legitimacy of combat-related mental health injuries.”

While talking to soldiers at Fort Drum, VFA also discovered “considerable stigma against mental health treatment within the military and pressure within some units to deny mental health problems as a result of combat.

Some soldiers who had been in the military for more than a decade stated that they lied on mental health questionnaires  for fear that if they disclosed problems, it would reduce their likelihood of being promoted.”

Soldiers at Fort Drum are not alone. In an earlier report  titled “Trends in Treatment of American’s Wounded Warriors,” VFA disclosed that leaders of the military mental health treatment system have been warning Department of Defense leadership of the magnitude of the mental health crisis that is brewing.

A report by the Army’s Mental Health Advisory Team (MHAT) that was released last May found that the percentage of soldiers suffering “severe stress, emotional, alcohol or family problem[s]” had risen more than 85 percent since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. MHAT also found that 28 percent of soldiers who had experienced high-intensity combat were screening positive for acute stress (i.e., Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD).

Finally, MHAT disclosed that  soldiers who had been deployed more than once were 60 percent more likely to screen positive for acute stress (i.e., PTSD) when compared to soldiers on their first deployment.

VFA’s most recent report notes points out that, despite these warnings, soldierstFort Drum do not have access to the care they need: “More than six years after large-scale military operations began in Afghanistan and, later, in Iraq, a casual observer might assume that programs would have been implemented to ensure access for Soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division to mental health services on base. Unfortunately, an investigation by VFA has revealed that [soldiers] who recently returned from Iraq must wait for up to two months before a single appointment can be scheduled . . .

“Given the great amount of public attention that has been focused on the psychological needs of returning service members, a casual observer might also assume that these needs would have been given a higher priority by Army leaders and the National Command Authority—the two entities with the greatest responsibility for ensuring the strength of our Armed Forces. These needs have long been acknowledged but,” the report concludes “ there has been insufficient action.”

Last month the army tried putting a band-aid on the problems at Fort Drum by sending three Army psychiatrists from Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) to the Fort D on a temporary basis to treat the large influx of returning soldiers  requiring mental health care. But, as the VFA  points out, “this is only a temporary fix, as the Walter Reed-based psychiatrists will likely return to Washington, DC, within a few weeks. [Note to 2009 readers: I would guess that if I knew about this, Hasan did too,]

Fort Drum will again be left with the task of treating thousands of soldiers with far too few mental health specialists. In addition, for those service members who were initially treated by psychiatrists  from Walter Reed, their care will suffer from discontinuity, as their cases will be assigned a new mental health professional on subsequent visits.”

And the war drags on. Earlier this month, the UK Times reported that “the conservative Washington think tank that devised the “surge” of US forces in Iraq  [the American Enterprise Institute]  now has come up with a plan to send 12,000 more American troops into southern Afghanistan.

A panel of more than 20 experts convened by the (AEI) has also urged the administration to get tough with Pakistan. “The US should threaten to attack Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters in lawless areas on the border with Afghanistan if the Pakistan military did not deal with them itself, the panel concluded.”

Where do conservatives expect to find those troops?

More soldiers are likely to suffer the fate of those at Fort Drum. They will be sent back to combat, again and again—until finally, they break. Soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, depression or a host of other mental problems are not in a good position to protect themselves. Sending them back only guarantees that fatalities will rise.

Comments

[Maggie Mahar]

jeet--

Yes, one would think they might have made soldiers' mental health needs a higher priority. . .

[Maggie Mahar]

jeet--

Yes, one would think they might have made soldiers' mental health needs a higher priority. . .

[jeet]

Given the great amount of public attention that has been focused on the psychological needs of returning service members, a casual observer might also assume that these needs would have been given a higher priority by Army leaders and the National Command Authority—the two entities with the greatest responsibility for ensuring the strength of our Armed Forces..
San Antonio Dentist

[Maggie Mahar]

Dennis--

I think they may have been sending him to Afghanistan to get rid of him.

That also suggests that the military did not see him as a potential terrorist. (If they did, they would want ot keep him at Fort Hood--to keep an eye on him.)

[Dr. Rick Lippin]

I support Maggie Mahar on her perspective.

I believe this person like most (not all) mass murderers was mentally ill.

The streeses on stretched ARMY personnel including ARMY health care professionals are both enormous, unrelenting, and systemic.

(Even the sender of the deadly Anthrax letters of Oct 2001 was a mentally ill ARMY bio-scientist)

While the ARMY is trying to address these stresses we need bolder changes to reduce the number of mentally ill in the US military.

And certainly sending a mentally ill person to Iraq and/or Afghanistan or any other war-zone is a HUGE mistake rendering the ARMY culpable.

Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton,Pa

[Dennis]

This a really intersting post for me. You see I'm from the UK and we constantly struggle with the lack of government help for our troops. Although they assure us that they treat their welfare as a priority we always view them with suspicion.

Now the USA always looked to me that they had a better handle on the psyche of their troops, I suppose that there is always going to be an element that cant be accounted for but reading between the lines here it is as if they wanted to bundle him off to Afganistan just to get rid of him.

[Lisa Lindell]

Not Faux News, the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2009/11/10/GA2009111000920.html
Page 48 of the ppt contains the statement I quoted.

[Maggie Mahar]

Lisa & Ed

Lisa-- I have to dsagree.

People who choose what is called "suicide by cop" (going on a killing spree
knowing they will be shot by police) are consdiered mentally ill by virtually all medical experts.

(This is very different from choosing to commit suicide because you are very ill and in pain, etc.
Sane suicides don't take other people with them.)

Sounds as if you may be getting your news from Fox.
They're into stirring up hatred of Moslems --and fear that we are all in danger of being attacked by people who don't look like "us."

Lisa, I'm not saying that this man shouldn't be punished because he is mentally ill. Legal insanity is a very tricky issuse, and well beyond my areas of expertise.

I am simply saying that his actions illustrate a larger problem for our soldiers-- and as a healthcare advocate, that is what I focus on.

I just finished watching CBS news-- all about what has been happening to our soldiers as a result of these wars. Hair-trigger tempers, violence, etc.

That is what is important.

Ed-- I've written about the Veteran's mental health problems before and will do so again.

This is where my focus is--it's a huge healthcare problem.

The U.S. army realizes this.

[Lisa Lindell]

He is a Muslim extremist. His religion does matter. I can't remember which news station aired it, but they found a ppt he presented indicating Muslim's should be allowed to be conscientious objectors because "We love death more than you love life," and he didn't believe in going to war against his own. I think all signs so far do point to his religion being a factor. Just because we don't agree with or understand his beliefs doesn't mean they weren't a factor or he's "insane." There's plenty of people, soldiers included, willing to die for what they believe in. Are they only sane when we agree with them? Hasan was willing to kill for his beliefs. The 9/11 pilots were willing to kill, and die for what they believed in. Psychiatrists and psychologists from coast to coast spend their careers exploring the human mind, they don't generally adopt their patient's diseases.

[Ed]

Um, is this the HealthBeatBlog or the ProgressiveDrumBeatBlog?

Ya know, just checking ...

[Maggie Mahar]

James & Others

If he had been a born-again Christian handing out bibles before he started shooting, I still would say that his religion was not the main factor here.

Most religious zealots do not go on shooting sprees.

But a disturbing number of soliders at Fort Hood and (and elsewhere in the army) have been killing themselves, their wives and fellow soldiers.

See the NYT story I quote in my reply to Michael and Lisa (Nov 10)

In many other cases, soldiers have been physical abusing their wives--to the point that wives have been getting court orders to keep their husbands at a distance.

The army says that the stress of these wars is causing this violent behavior. Soldiers are snappinng.

There have been 10 suicides at Ft. Hood in the past year.

And in general, we're seeing an enormous number of suicides in the army.

For the first time ever, the number of suicides among soliders now exceeds the rate of suicides in the male civilian population.

This is the larger story: The stress of these wars --and the fact that soliders are being sent back too often --is talking an enormous toll on our soldiers, and on the psychiatrists trying to help them. See the Stars and Stripes story I mention in my comments: "Who Will Help the Helpers?"

If we ignore that fact, we will only have more killings, more spousal abuse, and more lives ruined.

According to the military the tragic shooting spree at Ft. Hood does not appear to be a terrorist attack, but rather the act of one man.

The military was monitoring his correspondence with a religouis leader abroad and saw no signs of danger--or signs that he was taking orders from anyone else.

Certainly, there must have been many motives operating in his mind, but the fact that he turned on and began killing people that he had voluntarily signed up to help (as a psychiatrist) suggest that this isn't simply a case of a religious fanatic who believes that all Christians or all Americans should be killed.

When he went from being a doctor trying to counsel people to being a suicidal madman massacring people, it's clear that he suffered some sort of mental breakdown.

Finally, as Gillian points out, I'm not saying that this man is devoid of legal or moral responsiblity-- I'm not in a position to know if he was legally sane. As for morally, of course what he did was horribly wrong.

I'm just saying that he, as an individual, is much less important than the larger story here about what is happpening to our soliders.

I don't read this horriffic event as a warning that solidiers in the U.S. should be on the look-out for mad Moslems in their midst. I take it as a warning that the army needs to wary of pushing its soliders toi far. Too many are suffering mental wounds that may never heal.

That's the story that some on this thread don't want to face. But to its credit, the military is facing up to the extremes of violent behavior among our soldiers.

[Lois Klein]

The most frightening facet of the situation is that the NIH is now financing studies by BRAINS researchers, to identify physical factors in MRIs, etc. that will identify babies who have the characteristics that mass murderers had......
something that could very easily be turned into reasons to blame individuals for the future harm they might do, rather than provide treatment for the many stressors that elicit such responses to severe stress. Even when PTS was called "shell shock", treatment was kindly and comforting.

Now identifying those with the potential, who may or may not later exhibit those tendencies or put them into action, will suffer ostracism.

It's time to nurture children, not put damaging information into their files that someday will stop them from achieving positive dreams!

[James]

"The Ft. Hood massacre is not about one soldier suddenly “snapping.”And whether Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was a devout Muslim or not is of little importance."

To put it politely, I think you blew it. The man committed what certainly appears to any logical observer an act of Jihad. His religious views are of prime importance if they served as a justification for his act of mass murder. Maggie, he was on camera shortly before the shooting spree walking around in white traditional Muslim garb and handing out copies of the Koran. Would his religious view have been swept aside as not important if he had been a Christian fundamentalist handing out Bibles before going on a rampage?

Sorry, but this fellow sent up a series of bright red flags that he was Jihad waiting to happen. The part of the U.S. Army that appears to have been stretched too thin is the folks who look into obvious security risks.

You are ignoring the facts of the case to try to construct a motivation that fits your preexisting beliefs and already-reached conclusions. But, I fear facts are stubborn things. In this case, the facts point to Jihad.

I hate to break it to some of you, but sometimes what appears to be an act of Jihad by a Middle-Eastern Muslim male who gave multiple indications of sympathy for this cause may INDEED be an act of Jihad.

One may usually ignore the elephant in the living room with no consequences other than a loss of couch space and a bit of a mess. In this case, ignoring it led to 13 dead soldiers.

[jenga]

Even Obama in his speech is stating that Hasan's radical views may have been at play. The thought that this guy would be motivated to do what he did by "secondary PTSD" is laughable on its face. This PTSD treatment is an entirely separate issue. Trying to rationalize this murderer's actions into your narrative against the Afganistan war is politics at its worst. There are thousands of psychiatrists that hear horrible stories on a daily basis over many years, yet you never hear about them shooting up the joint. When all of the facts come out, I think it is much more likely that this will be seen as a domestic act of terrorism and this was Hasan's jihad against U.S. servicemen.

[Maggie Mahar]

Michael and Lisa--

The army itself sees Hanan's problem as part of a larger problem in the military. And at Fort Hood they have had close to 1 suicide a month over the past year.

This from today's New York Times:

FORT HOOD, Tex. — Staff Sgt. Gilberto Mota, 35, and his wife, Diana, 30, an Army specialist, had returned to Fort Hood from Iraq last year when he used his gun to kill her, and then took his own life, the authorities say. In July, two members of the First Cavalry Division, also just back from the war with decorations for their service, were at a party when one killed the other.

That same month, Staff Sgt. Justin Lee Garza, 28, under stress from two deployments, killed himself in a friend’s apartment outside Fort Hood, four days after he was told no therapists were available for a counseling session. “What bothers me most is this happened while he was supposed to be on suicide watch,” said his mother, Teri Smith. “To this day, I don’t know where he got the gun.”

Fort Hood is still reeling from last week’s carnage, in which an Army psychiatrist is accused of a massacre that left 13 people dead. But in the town of Killeen and other surrounding communities, the attack, one of the worst mass shootings on a military base in the United States, is also seen by many as another blow in an area that has been beset by crime and violence since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began. Reports of domestic abuse have grown by 75 percent since 2001. At the same time, violent crime in Killeen has risen 22 percent while declining 7 percent in towns of similar size in other parts of the country.

The stresses are seen in other ways, too.

Since 2003, there have been 76 suicides by personnel assigned to Fort Hood, with 10 this year, according to military officials.

[Michael Kirsch, M.D.]

From your post: "And whether Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was a devout Muslim or not is of little importance."

From my comments: "Finally, you state "whether Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was a devout Muslim or not is of little importance." How do we know this yet?"

From today's New York Times: http://bit.ly/uuI0v

Let's let the facts come out before we make conclusions about the psychiatrist's state of mind and motivation. I'm not quite ready assign blame to the military.

www.MDWhistleblower.blogspot.com

[Lisa Lindell]

Now this is purely speculation, but maybe they were watching/investigating him? Maybe they wanted to know if it was just Hasan (talking to Al Qaeda) or if there were more? Who knows? Of course he had some screws loose, in our opinion, but he isn't a victim. I don't think it's the Army's fault, either. We can't just go "profiling" all soldiers of a particular religious background, now can we? Whether the Army is or isn't treating mental health diseases appropriately, in my opinion, is a discussion that shouldn't be coupled with what Hasan did.

[Chris Johnson]

Lisa -- I suppose that depends upon one's perspective. In my view, anybody who did what he did is mentally unhinged. But, as I said, I don't think that's the army's fault.

If that news story is correct, it is another appalling example of how inefficient and/or incompetent our security systems are. But we still take off our shoes to get on the airplane.

[Lisa Lindell]

ABC news reported the CIA and the Army knew Hasan had been communicating with one of the top Al Qaeda recruiters as far back as 2008. I don't think he's a victim or a nut or suffering from an untreated mental disease. He's a traitor.

[Chris Johnson]

I suspect both viewpoints may be part of the answer. His daily work did put him in close contact with many soldiers whose mental stability was severely stressed by their combat experience. What he saw and heard from them could then easily have prompted a search for meaning, a search that led him down a twisted path to mass murder.

But many physicians deal with analogous situations all the time -- we see horrible things but that does not lead us to do horrible things. It is difficult for me to see how witnessing PTSD can cause PTSD in a trained psychiatrist.

Fanatics often use religious motifs to justify what they do -- I notice, for example, that Fred Phelps is in the news again. I suspect Hasan, like other psychotics, seized upon religion to use in his fantasies.

In sum, the army clearly needs to do better in treating PTSD, but I don't blame the army or Islam for this event. The guy is nuts. (And found it easy to purchase handguns, but that is another debate.)

[Jenga]

I agree with you Lisa. Try finding a pension in the private sector. We may soon find out a lot more about the situation and the Army may be no more at fault than Smith and Wesson. I'm not sure if Maggie wants to keep growing the list of victims in our society to now include mass murderers.

[Lisa Lindell]

"Good education, great benefits? Are you kidding??" No, Maggie, I'm not kidding. I've been surrounded by the military my entire life. Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force. My immediate and extended family, for many generations, has either served in the armed forces or worked for General Motors. Or both. I don't need anybody to explain to me what's "really" going on so I can be convinced the actions of Hasan are somehow the Army's fault, because I will never be convinced of that. What happened to personal responsibility? "war is hell" as I said, if it were comfortable and without hazard then we probably wouldn't call it "war." If what Hasan did was the Army's fault because they're neglecting the mental health of soldiers, then why aren't the majority of neglected and mistreated soldiers opening fire on their fellow servicemembers? I think he was a religious extremist and likelly WAS in his right mind, based on his beliefs. When I heard he was on a ventilator, I figured that was it, he'd die of an infection. But now I hear he's breathing on his own.

[jenga]

"No one knows what he yelled." There were eyewitnesses and Lt. Gen. Robert Cone stated as such.

Make him a victim if you want, I think it's completely ridiculous to. We will eventually know the whole story and you've made your bed now. We will see what happens.

[Maggie Mahar]

Jenga--

No one knows what he yelled. Or that he tried to contact a terrorist group.

And, if you would bother to read the LA Times story I refer to--and Stars and Stripes-- you would find that people within the army see him as very likely a victim of the terrible stress our soliders are suffering.

[Maggie Mahar]

Lisa--

What I meant is do you know anyone who would tell you what it's really like in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Your friends children probably wouldn't tell them (wouldn't want to upset and scare them). They might talk about it once they're out of the army, but most people don't.

[jenga]

Or maybe you first sentence was completely wrong.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fort-hood-shooter-contact-al-qaeda-terrorists-officials/story?id=9030873

and maybe you are rationalizing the acts of a mass murdering Islamic extremist. Are you seriously trying to make him the victim? If being a Muslim had nothing to do with it. Why did he try to contact al Qaeda and yell "Allahu Akbar"?

[Lisa Lindell]

"Do you have any close friends or relatives in the army?" I have several friends and professional colleagues whose children are in the Army.

[Maggie Mahar]

Gillian--

Yes, exactly-- this highlights the larger problem of too much stress leading to serious psychological problems among our soliders.

Vietnam was a very similar war--and the toll it took, not just on bodies, but on minds, was enormous.

The VA reports that they're now seeing Vietnam vets who managed to repress their memories for many years, but now, as they get older, they're breaking down.

And yes, the number of homeless, as well as alcoholics and drug addicts who served in our military is enormous.

They deserve our help; many of them haven't gotten the help they need.

The administration has given the VA a significant boost in funding, but the military is struggling to cope with rampant psychiatric problems.

More suicides in the Army last year than ever before.

Whatever Hasan's motives, he is just one example of a much, much larger problem.

People like Joe Lieberman who want to focus solely on Hasan are trying to sweep that problem under the rug.

[Maggie Mahar]

Michael--

Michael--

The army itself is taking responsibility.

See LA Times story headlined "Fort Hood Tragedy Rocks Military" (you can Google it.)

It explains that this shooting is just one of 3 recent incidents in which a soldier turned his gun on felllow soldiers, and that the military realizes that it has a huge, intractable mental health problem.

"Military leaders acknowledge rampmant psychiatric problems in their midst. . . The army reported 133 suicides in 2008,, the most ever."

The problem, the story explains (and as I explained in my earlier post) is that we're sending young men and women over there two, three times. They're breaking down.

We have too few soldiers,
and young kids are going over their totally unprepared.

I have a relative who is an officer in the army. He sees them in training before they go over--young, clueless kids, often from rural areas, who have no idea what they are getting into.

When they come back, many are in very bad shape psychologically. Then we send them over again.

These wars are like Vietnam--guerilla wars.

Finally, a story about Hasan in Stars & Stripes, the military newspaper, reports that a shortage of military psychiatrists has put these doctors under enormous pressure-- Who will help the helpers? the story asks: "http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:BDf2d1s-qPkJ:hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FORT_HOOD_STRESSED_OUT_PSYCHIATRISTS%3FSITE%3DDCSAS%26SECTION%3DHOME%26TEMPLATE%3DDEFAULT%26CTIME%3D2009-11-07-19-48-45+%22Stars+and+Stripes%22+and+Hasan+and+stress&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

[Maggie Mahar]

Lisa--

Anyone who goes on a killing spree like this one knows that they are going to be shot and almost certainly killed.

This was a suicidal move.

The fact that he gave all of his possessions away tells us this. (This is classic behavior before committing suicide.)

This is a doctor-- a psychiatrist--who spent his career trying to help his fellow soliders.

If you read my post, you know that we've been sending young men and women over there two three times, often completely unprepared.

This is because we have too few soldiers.

The military itself is admitting this -- and suggesting that Hasan was a victim of the stress that has been leading to acute psychological problems.

See LA Times story headlined "Fort Hood Tragedy Rocks Military" (you can Google it.)

It explains that this is just shotting is just one of 3 recent incidents in which a soldier turned his gun on felllow soldiers, and that the military realizes that it has a huge, intractable mental health problem. "Military leaders acknowledge rampmant psychiatric problems in their midst. . . The army reported 133 suicides in 2008,, the most ever."

"Good education, great benefits?"" Are you kidding??

Do you have any close friends or relatives in the army?

We're sending 18-year-olds to be slaughtered. I have family in the army. My relative--who has been in the army for many years-- tells me that the kids going to Afghanistan and Iraq are completely unprepared.

When training them "we try to teach them enough so that they don't wind up accidentallly shooting themsleves with their own weapon" he told me.

He tells of a friend who was in Germany and was offered a go back to the U.S. (where his wife and chldren are) if he would first go to Iraq and teach Iraqi's how to defuse land mines.

It was only when he got there that he found out he wouldn't be teaching anyone--he would be defusing land mines himself.

First, he would get a couple of days of training from someone else. The first day of training, the person teaching him made a mistake.

The guy just disappeared--vaporized. There were just shreds of clothing etc. left.

Then my relative's friend had to do that job for many months.

By the time he got back to Germany, he was a complete psychological wreck. Hands wouldn't stop shaking.

And while in Iraq saw things that he'll never forget. Women raped. Children shot.

Many soldiers are breaking down. Read Stars & Stripes.
As my relative says: "they have to tell some of the truth in the military newspapers,because they know that we (the solideres) know what's going on."

[Gillian]

I'm not reading this as Maggie thinks Hasan is completely devoid of responsibility. It is merely highlighting a larger problem.

The timing of this apropos. Every day I walk by a homeless Marine veteran on my way to work. With this Weds being 11/11, this morning I googled "homeless veterans".

The government has a section of the VA site dedicate to homeless vets. The stats are astounding:
- About one-third of the adult homeless population have served their country in the Armed Services.
-45% of homeless Veterans suffer from mental illness and (with considerable overlap) slightly more than 70% suffer from alcohol or other drug abuse problems.

(http://www1.va.gov/homeless/)

Clearly, this is not just an issue with this soldier and this incident.

[Lisa Lindell]

If being in the military were easy, then everybody would do it. Great benefits, free education...
If being deployed to a war zone were comfortable and without hazard, everybody would do it. Hasan unloaded a lot of ammo with the intent to kill American servicepeople. He didn't put a gun to his own head (that we know of). Hasan had a duty to serve and when duty called, he went on a murderous rampage. This isn't anybody's fault but Hasan's. I also think as this unfolds we will find his religious beliefs DID play a significant role in his actions.

[Dr. Rick Lippin]

Maggie- Thanks

No big deal.....But I'm sure your response to me on this piece belonged to an earlier blog piece

Dr. Rick Lippin

[Michael Kirsch, M.D.]

Hi Maggie, Thanks for your response. Are you suggesting that the military bears some responsbility for the killings? I don't feel that you fully responded to my initial comments to you. I posed the an inquiry of a potential religious element to the situation because you mentioned it first in the opening lines of your post.

[Maggie Mahar]

Thanks Dr. Rick

I have been fairly sure that is would pass, but still, I was crying very happy tears Sat night.

[Dr. Rick Lippin]

Maggie-

Thanks for correctly pointing out that a huge error would be to isolate this horrible tragedy at Ft. Hood as a single event.

The ARMY has serious systemic problems which they are attempting to but poorly addressing.

Even the sender of the deadly Anthrax letters in Oct 2001 was a mentally ill ARMY bio-scientist.

Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton,Pa

[Maggie Mahar]

Michael--

Whether he was devout or not is of little importance because this tragedy is not about one invidiual snapping (for wahtever reason).

It is about the extraordinary stress that our soliders are enduring.

We have taken a small army of under-trained volunteers and stretched them far too thin.

This I know from my sources in the army.

While this pscyhiatrist hadn't been to Iraq or Afghanistan, he had spent years working with patients traumatized by that experience.

I expect he had a vivid picture of what the war is like.

[Michael Kirsch, M.D.]

Maggie,

I object to the tone of your post, which victimizes the murderer. I haven't served in war, or even in the military, so I cannot relate to his experience. Nevertheless, we have over 200,000 troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, and most seem to cope with their traumas without turning a gun onto their comrades. Keep in mind that this psychiatrist never was in harm's way, but was stateside. While I'm sure you are correct that the military, as well as the rest of us,could treat mental illnesses better, this should not be a pretext to reduce a criminal's culpability. Finally, you state "whether Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was a devout Muslim or not is of little importance." How do we know this yet? www.MDWhistleblower.blogspot.com

[Maggie Mahar]

Dr. Frankie

Thanks very much for your comment.

Yes, "tragic, infuriating . . and fratricides." That pretty much sums it up.

Meanwhile, I watched Joe Liberman on television this evening declaring that
Hanan was an extremist Muslim terrorist.

Right, Joe, that's the problem-- Hanan's religion.

I wish that President Obama would realize that the people who want us to be in Afghanistan--and who might perceive him as "weak on terrorism" --are the same people who listen to Lieberman.

They won't vote for the president under any circumstances. (I think that Obama may be re-evalutating his position on Afghanistan. I would love to know what Hillary is telling him privately. Publicly, she will back him 100%. She must. But privately . .. )

If Obama becomes a one-term president-- and I ferverently hope that won't happen-- it will be because Ameircans are disappointed that the hasn't been able to turn the economy around.

His economic advisers are giving him bad advice.

After the damage done to the economy during the Bush years, there is no way that Obama can turn things around in 4 years.

He can reduce unemployment by creating jobs-- like the WPA jobs. We need teachers' aides in public schools, more people keeping our cities and parks cleaner, more really good and affordable day-care, etc.

Reducing unemployment would help. People wouldn't feel so insecure.

But the Obama administraiton needs to level with Americans.
Bush dug a very deep hole.
And we never paid for the excesses of the 1990s.

It is going to take time to repair this economy.

[Dr. Frankie]

Tragic and infuriating at the same time. None of these commanders would dare interfere with physicians caring for "physical" diseases. (as if the brain was an ethereal miasma devoid of matter) The Defense secretary should tell commanders in no uncertain terms that interfering with mental health physicians is cause for demotion.

Given that Obama fear becoming a one term President by appearing "weak on terrorism" he'll soon send more soldiers in an area 10 times more hostile than Iraq.

I'm afraid we'll see more fratricides like Fort Hood soon.