I wonder how he knew he wasn’t killing Muslims when he opened fire at the Soldier Readiness Center.
Kay Bailey Hutchenson said he wasn’t firing randomly, but was specifically targeting people he knew.
And if you did get an explanation, it might not make much sense. Crazy people do things for reasons that are, well, crazy.
I think it might be more disturbing if the reason did make sense. If there’s an explanation that makes sense to you, that means you can understand why someone might think doing something like this was a good idea. That’s too close to thinking “there’s a situation in which I might do something like this” for comfort. I don’t like to think of myself as someone who could do a thing like this.
The car-vandalism angle made me think along those lines, actually. My car was broken into in 2004. When I found out, I was very angry at the person who did it (I did not and do not know who it was). I wanted something terrible to happen to that person. I think I would have been even more upset if I had thought my car was targeted because of my religion (which it wasn’t, but this guy’s was).
Is this the right thread to point out that the Orlando shooter has an obviously Christian name? Or should I take it to the other one?
This is still an unsubstantiated assertion. You still don’t know he wasn’t just mentally ill.
And Hasan is in a coma, so we don’t know when or if he could give any answers.
I hadn’t heard that.
And Contrapuntal, stop making sense. You’ll confuse the crazy guy. EDIT: I stand by the wisecrack, even if it is superceded by Sen. Hutchison’s comments.
Dammit! Tipped my hand.
True, the words “God is great” are used by Muslims in all manner of religious and daily life. But when yelled before slaughtering innocent people it is a battle cry. There are no other words to describe it.
In this instance, his dislike at the idea that he might kill Muslims led to a massacre of soldiers from his own army and it was led off by a battle cry. It was driven by his religious beliefs.
Do you have military experience? I don’t. If you do, what do you suppose would be the likelihood of a psychiatrist having to fire a weapon?
Hmm. Doesn’t the Geneva Convention, or some international “rule of war,” affirmatively prohibit medical personnel from taking on any combatant role? A sound policy as otherwise you’d have the enemy taking potshots at medics.
I don’t know the details, but it seems likely that someone deploying to a combat zone would have to qualify or requalify in small arms. That’s how it was in the Navy, and ISTM that the Army would be more stringent in enforcing this basic rule.
Even so, when would he have the opportunity or reason to kill an enemy combatant? I guess my question really is : How many Army psychiatrists have killed a Muslim while deployed in Afghanistan?
Most field medics carry small arms for defensive purposes. They cannot be used to mount an offense - this would strip them of those protections that you mention.
I can answer that…very very low. Its not like he was going to be kicking in doors or going on patrols. I’d have a better chance of that, and in particular MOS the chances of it would be low.
I think this man may have just snapped and that his motivation was not entirely religious in nature. But thats just an opinion. None of know for sure at this time.
The premise is not my conjecture, this is what CNN reported as a conversation between the shooter and a Muslim store clerk. There are other reports about conversations he had regarding his disapproval of the war.
If I were to add conjecture, I would say that he saw his deployment as a more active role in the war, even though he’s just moving to a different location to practice his trade.
When uttered before shooting dozens of people, or blowing yourself up on a bus, it’s a Jihad cry.
Probably because there are a lot fewer Christian terrorists than Muslim ones.
I didn’t properly link the CNN report before. Fort Hood Suspect on Store Camera. It’s an interesting report because CNN went to the effort of getting an Arabic translator to talk to the clerk in case anything was missed in translation. According to the clerk Maj. Hasan did not speak Arabic well enough to carry on a conversation (even though the clerk tried to engage him, so most of the conversations were in English). What CNN never clarified is whether he normally wore Islamic clothing or if this was something new to him on the day of the shooting. It’s been stated that he often went to the Mosque in his military uniform. His former neighbors said he kept a Muslim prayer on his apartment door and the clerk said he attended Friday prayers regularly so it’s safe to say he was devout in his practices.
I presume he is concerned about being part of and assisting a group killing Muslims.
That makes sense to me, in a way.
What doesn’t make sense is having joined the U.S. military if susceptible to those or other pacifistic views. The Army is not a humanitarian endeavor. And no one ever said individual soldiers got to pick their enemies. And . . . I can’t readily think of any time in the past twenty years (including whenever he signed up) that the U.S. has not been in outright conflict with, or dispatching periodic missiles or no-fly enforcers to, one or more Muslim states/entities. Who was he thinking we were equipping an army to fight, Soviets? Dumbass, if he didn’t foresee a high likelihood of facing off with his brehtren.
No, it’s just a normal prayer.
Ireland. Bosnia.