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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Army JAG officer discusses the Fort Hood shooting |
| 2009-11-06 |
| Transcript of an online chat session run by the Washington Post. Both the questions (from Post readers) and the answers are refreshingly intelligent compared to a lot of the MSM. Here's a taste: Rockville, Md.: Dear Mr. Kenniff, As the wife of a former military officer, it strikes me as odd that the shooter, who was a major in the Army, claimed that he was being harassed for his religious beliefs. While some types of harassment and teasing (which could be serious or not) are surely not uncommon among enlisted men and women, it is harder to envision it happening in the officer ranks. Enlisted soldiers would know not to harass an officer and it is difficult to envision this individual being "made fun of" (the term I saw in the newspaper) by other officers. This seems inconsistent with the norms in that professional context. What is your sense of this claim? Thanks. Thomas Kenniff: I couldn't agree more and that was one of the points I tried to make on Larry King last night, as Dr. Phil droned on about ptsd. This is a person who out ranked 95% of the military, and occupied a position of prestige both in the military and as a civilian. Doctors are treated like gold in the Army. Moreover, he had not even been deployed yet and, no, I don't but the whole "ptsd by proxy" argument that so many people tried to sell on television last night. The facts suggest someone motivated by ideology--just like the Akbar case in 2003. - - - - - - - - - - New York: I liked your Dr. Phil comments. If someone really doesn't want to be deployed, or if they have religious objections, what are their options? Is the military accommodating of such objections? Thomas Kenniff: My understanding is this guy was commissioned in 2001, any contractual commitment he had to the army would not have gone longer 6 to 8 years, at most. He most likely decided to renew his contract, most likely to avail himself of a big medical enlistment bonus--now he claims he wanted out and didnt want to deploy . . . Go read the rest of it. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #3 Pure crap. This is what he 'suffered' from: “Slay the unbelievers wherever you find them.” Koran 2:191 |
| Posted by: Woozle Uneter9007 2009-11-06 23:32 |
| #2 While I don't believe ptsd was Hasan's motivation, I do think he could have suffered from it as you say 'vicariously' - facing the grievously wounded day after day has got to be traumatic, and quite possibly more so than the sporadic combat most experience even in theatre. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-11-06 21:59 |
| #1 it strikes me as odd that the shooter, who was a major in the Army, claimed that he was being harassed for his religious beliefs. I don't buy this story either. Why the hell would this a$$hole have PSTD--vicariously? He hadn't been in a combat zone. B.S. story. PC has just about neutered the country. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-11-06 18:50 |