Last Thursday, a tragedy occurred at Ft. Hood, Texas. A soldier is suspected of massacring many of his comrades. He reportedly killed 13 and wounded more than 30 others before being gunned down.
The suspect, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, is a military-trained psychiatrist. Some of his fellow soldiers claimed that he was absolutely dedicated to treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other serious mental issues soldiers suffer after returning from Iraq.
At the moment, everyone in the media is asking, what caused this man to go so far off the deep end that he felt the need to kill those whom he was so “dedicated” to helping? It is a fair enough question that I am sure everyone wants to know.
However, I am thinking of a completely different and more important one. How did the Army miss the signs?
If we start at the beginning, there are very obvious signs that something was wrong. Hasan was having some serious moral issues with being in the military.
Being a Muslim, he outright objected to being sent overseas to the Middle East. Yes, it was his decision to join the Army. There was no one twisting his arm and forcing him into servitude, but I for one cannot fathom what was going through his mind.
Major Hasan was born and raised in the United States, but he had family, friends and close cultural ties to the Middle East. That, right there, would be a red flag. What did the Army expect? Did they believe he would be jumping for joy to be sent to kill people with whom he could so easily identify?
It was not like he tried to hide his opinion, either. The man went through every possible way he could to stay in the U.S.
Loophole after loophole failed, and he still tried to get out. He even attempted to pay all of his educational debts back to the military in a trade-off to be released from his contract early. It was no use.
Finally, Hasan hired a lawyer and was told that there was no legal way to get out of the military. He just gave up.
There were plenty of other things that showed he was in a bad state. Being a psychiatrist, he had to listen to horror stories about being out in the field from the soldiers he had to treat.
Can you imagine? Every single person he had to speak with in a day told him of the awful things that they saw, what they had to do and how it messed them up for life. There was not any positivity or light heartedness. Only the pain these soldiers brought back with them was discussed.
Of course he was terrified of being deployed. You would have to be totally numb to any and all emotions to actually want to go!
I am not denying that this is a very serious and saddening event, nor am I saying that Hasan was in the right for his actions. His alleged behavior took human lives, and he will have to pay the penalty for it in the end.
How could the military have missed such obvious signs of disaster?
His state of mind was no secret to his companions. Coworkers even commented on his “giving up” attitude.
Why didn’t anyone say anything or alert someone? A man so down and out that he is trying every possible way out of a situation is not a suitable person to deploy.
One should be of sound mind and soul to be qualified for such a job.
Rebecca McGrath is a junior liberal arts major.
Ft Hood massacre foreseeable
Published: Monday, November 9, 2009
Updated: Monday, November 9, 2009
4 comments
Coolio
David, I think you may be missing the whole point of the article. The author never stated that what he did was right in any way. The article is about the military not paying enough attention.
David
In 1995, my unit was sent to Haiti. I knew it was wrong, and I was absolutely opposed to going but... I was a soldier. I did not get to make policy. I did my job and came home. How much better is that nation we tried to re-build now? Just wondering... Anyway...That peice of work, Maj. Hasan used your tax dollars to obtain his degree. It requires 4-8 years to payback the military for the education they provide. Having attained the rank of Major (it takes several years to get to that rank), he had plenty of time to exit stage left when his mandatory time was up. He decided to stay in to suck on the government teat a little more. Then, when he had to deploy into a hostile environment, he had a change of heart.The man is a leach! I have no pity for him. He deserves life in prison if not a needle in the arm. However, a needle would be too easy a way out for a POS like that.
V
I think you are unbiased and address the situation in a mature matter. Great column.
K
He also went to the same Mosque that 2 of the September 11 suicide bombers went to, and was threatening suicide bombing a short while ago; why wasn't he let out when this was found out? He has been on "Red Flag alert" for a good time now... shouldn't our military have a better "Red Flag" system? It's one thing when a U.S. soldier is killed overseas, a whole new thing when he is on his own American soil in a military base... where one is supposed to feel safe.
