Am I missing something here? If Hasan had gone to Iraq or Afghanistan, came back, snapped and did this I could understand his military service being a mitigating factor to his actions, but according to the reports I read he had never been deployed overseas.
How are his actions any different from when any person walks into their workplace or school and starts shooting up?
I know this is harsh but I recognise the need to find out the 'whys' to tragic events such as this, but I’m of the mind that there’s really no answer aside from the fact of what we have here is another loser with a gun.
I agree with you, jayvee. I've read the reports that say the major was harassed because of his religion, which is unfortunate, but if he worked at a bank or an insurance company or UPS or anywhere other than the military, and he shot a bunch of his coworkers, there'd be no effort to justify what he did. I'm not saying anyone here is trying to justify the guy's actions, just saying that his military service is being factored into what he's done in a way another career choice wouldn't be.
However, he re-enlisted at least once. He has a chance to get out, he chose not to do so.
I don't know what else could have been done except to let him out now and if they did that everyone and their mother's brother would be using the same reasoning the next day.
While I certainly have sympathy for the experiences of service men and women who have fought in the past and are fighting now, I'm with bookgrl on this one. Not everyone makes a lifelong career out of the military, and most of the time you have ample opportunity to leave, and you know when these opportunities are, and you can plan for them. If you stay in after realizing a military career is not for you, that's your choice, and you have no one to blame but yourself. I'm sympathetic to anyone who has been forced to stay in the military due to a shortage in their career field, but that's not the case here.
There may not be an official draft, but the problem is that many people see no choice but to go into the army as it's their only way of getting through college.
There are a lot of ways to pay for college that don't involve the military. If someone buys the military recruiting pitch about money for college without fully thinking about the possibility of going into combat, especially with 2 seven-year-old wars going on, I don't have too much sympathy for them, either.
He is a military psychiatrist who had to relive the mental and physical horrors of his patients daily.
Thus far the evidence I've seen doesn't support the reasoning that he snapped because of the trauma of his job, but rather because of harassment based on his religion. I realize all the evidence isn't in, and it probably isn't that simple, but so far, based on what's been reported, it doesn't look to me like the argument that job-related trauma led to this is valid.