On Facebook I got some feedback from some folks that they thought the title of my last post, “It’s Not a Muslim Thing, Is It a Mid-Life Crisis Thing?” was going to be a refutation of some sort of liberal excuse to not blame the shootings at Ft. Hood on muslims.
I hadn’t even thought of that (liberals blaming aging men instead of muslims) when I was posting about it. It was just an observation I thought was worth noting. I actually started noticing this over the past few multiple shooting tragedies. Not all, but enough to notice, it seems that the men who perpetrated those acts were around this age.
Now granted, I think the miltant cultural strain of Islam is totally a part of what Major Hasan was influenced by. No doubt about that. But my inner-sociologist wants to interview these men while they sit in jail for the rest of their lives. Not to make up pc liberal excuses, but to discover any possible way to help other men who might be in similar situations before they do something horrible.
That’s not a liberal thing to do is it? If it is I guess I am liberal in some ways 
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I don’t think it’s a liberal, midlife or Muslim thing. I think it’s a deranged, sick, hellish, perverted, disgusting, revolting, psychotic, horrendous thing which cannot be placed in any classification but the lowest form of the depravity of mankind.
itsa mental illness thing – treatable, preventable, and especially tragic considering the sacrifices already incurred by the victims and their families. It compounds the sadness to know that the US Army has enormous resources set aside to support the mental health of its caregivers. He never had to become that sick.
You would think that him being directly involved in the mental health division of the Army he would have tried to get help … or being the Army, forced to get help. I bet the investigation will be very revealing.
Michael, do you know of any evidence that this type of crime is on the increase among this age group? I am not playing around either … I am genuinely curious.
That was a pretty long string of adjectives there Kara. Good job in expressing yourself
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Not being funny, but why are we surprised when people who are trained to murder do murder? We are OK with them murdering people in another country who they’ve never met, but the instance they murder people in the UK or US, we get all ‘SHIT!’ about it. The armed forces teach people to murder, and to not dwell on the fact they are terminating people’s lives, tearing apart families, and disfiguring and disabling the people who survive. They are taught it is a good, brave, patriotic and salvationist thing they are doing. And that’s OK cos those people don’t matter, cos they live in a distant country. But to touch a US or UK citizen is the greatest sin. We go to war when 3000 people are murdered. That’s understandable. Not something I agree with, but I understand the mentality of it, academically. But put it into the context that 30 000 children die every day from hunger… Yes, we see some people as more important than others. Some lives are more important than others. Whereas God loves every person. And He grieves for every loss of life.
Someone would have noticed something was wrong with Malik. Someone would have noticed. Someone would have seen the signs. It, like other armed forces murders where officers turn on their own, could have been prevented, if someone had spoken up about their concerns. Yes, he was a Muslim. And I can understand every reason he didn’t want to go to Afganistan. But white officers turn guns on their comrades. For a range of reasons. But instability in their mental health is a biggie. They would have been ruminating a lot – the internal arguments that don’t stop, no matter how hard one tries to stop them, and usually, they are very negative thoughts about other people, that start off based in reality and then go on to extremes of anger and negativity about those people and situations. And they would have had anger from past situations that has not been dealt with. In among everything, their reality would have changed. So in their reality, it is a good and just thing to murder, to solve problems. Because that is what they have been taught.
Soldiers coming back from the front line want to murder back home. Of course. They have been taught that murder is a good and just thing. We need to examine what we are teaching soldiers, how it is taught and the spirit in which it is taught. And how soldiers’ mental health is monitored and treated. Every life is important.