Take 13 Lives And Call Me In The Morning
Krauthammer, via NRO, thinks the real moral scandal is the attempt to medicalize mass murder:
All of a sudden we hear that he [Nidal Hasan] heard these terrible stories from soldiers who had suffered and he snapped.Well, what about the doctors and nurses and counselors and physical therapists at Walter Reed who every day hear and live with the suffering of soldiers? How many of them have picked up a gun and shot up a room of soldiers?
What about civilian psychiatrists who hear every day tales of woe and suffering -- the indescribable suffering of, say, a psychotically depressed patient -- who don't pick up a gun and shoot up people.
I was a psychiatrist. I can't remember a single instance of a psychiatrist who went around shooting people. Maybe I missed the epidemic.
But all of a sudden if the shooter is called Nidal Hasan, all of a sudden everybody invents this secondary post-traumatic stress syndrome which had never existed until yesterday.
It is an example of political correctness. And all the warnings that people had had in advance and not reported is an example of how political correctness isn't only a moral abomination, it's also a danger.
"But all of a sudden if the shooter is called Nidal Hasan..." Exactly. And it's even more astonishing when you realize that every single Muslim civilian in the Western world who has died because of the war on Muslim terrorism has been murdered BY OTHER MUSLIMS (think 9/11, Madrid 3/11, London 7/7). The sole exception is the sniping scumbag who was fried in Virginia last night. After all that, the powers that be still insist that the real tragedy is that some member of CAIR was called a camel jockey on his way to the mosque, and that a Muslim version of Kristallnacht is hovering just around the corner.
Martin at November 11, 2009 10:14 AM
I'd guess one way to guarantee some anti-Muslim pogrom is to continue doing what we are doing. Our so-called elites may wish otherwise, but most people will put up with polite lies only to a point.
They can claim an equal threat is from Aryan skinheads or whackos who shoot abortionists, but most people can count and read and connect the dots quite well. Once is bad luck, twice could be coincidence, but the third set of bad outcomes will send most people looking for a cause that does not include aliens from outer space or other improbabilities.
Most Muslims aren't terrorists, but... A cynic would think the government is deliberately setting this confrontation up by ignoring the obvious.
MarkD at November 11, 2009 10:42 AM
Maybe this is the government way to stigmatize, not dramatize, terrorists.
After 9/11, Bush gave over-dramatic national recognition to Al Queda, and probably glorified it, in the eyes of wanna-be terrorists. Here was the Prezzy of the US, talking about Al Qaeda, and unable to defeat it, or ever bring bin Laden to justice! Think of the sucess Al Queda had, in putting itself on the map as an international player to be reckoned with.
But calling terrorists kooks and perverts, and forgetting about them--I can't say this is a bad idea.
BTW, terrorists kill a handful of people in the USA from time to time. We lose 12,000 to gunshots every year, and 40,000 to auto accidents.
I can't even point a fart in the direction of terrorists. Not worth it.
The Butthole of the Universe at November 11, 2009 1:22 PM
Ugghhh Butthoe, not sure how its all still all Bush's fault. And I think Al Queda guaranteed themselves some international prominence when they knocked down the towers and killed 3,000 Americans!
Anyway, back on point. So some in the media are saying that Hasan had somehow contracted Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from talking to people about their time in the war: like it gets passed along like the flu or something.
Now the facts are coming out. Hasan did not counsel people returning from war torn Iraq or Afghanistan. He counseled soldiers BEFORE they left for combat. So what are they gonna come up with now. Hasan suffered from Pre-Traumatic Stress Syndrome by anticipating the horrors others might confront?
Brett at November 11, 2009 7:26 PM
I get really pissy when (in this case the press) people toss about the PTSD diagnosis in such a mindless and ignorant fashion. It speaks volumes to their level of ignorance on what events and life circumstances cause it and it diminishes (horribly diminishes) the true nature of the struggle soldiers and other sufferers are forced to live with on a daily basis.
That aside. I was reading somewhere that Army Majors with medical degrees and no student loans, or dependents to take care of could easily be brining home upwards of six figures not including benefits (or free healthcare). Yet this piece of filth chose to live in squalor.
Where was all his money going?
Feebie at November 11, 2009 11:18 PM
BTW, I realize it's something that has been passed over now for almost a week, but the death toll at Fort Hood was 14. The young mother to be, had it not been for Hasan would have had a child (barring any unforeseen circumstances).
Notice in the papers they don't say how far along she was in her pregnancy. I know the political reason for this, but I truly do believe it is petty.
She had every intention of having her child. I think that SHOULD count.
Feebie at November 11, 2009 11:35 PM
MarkD writes: "I'd guess one way to guarantee some anti-Muslim pogrom is to continue doing what we are doing. Our so-called elites may wish otherwise, but most people will put up with polite lies only to a point."
There's a lot of truth to that. When one states that in effect that Muslims cannot be held to the same high standards as the rest of society, that justifies the racist view of Muslims.
Cousin Dave at November 12, 2009 11:39 AM
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