Multiple Shootings At Fort Hood

I’m glad they captured him alive. Usually when these things happen, the shooter dies and everyone is left with gaping questions.

After they get his account from him, of course, they can drop him in a tank of acid-breathing sharks for all I care.

I wonder what they’ll do with the shooter. Make him well, put him on trial, and execute him? It’s been almost fifty years since there was a military execution.

Or will he go to civilian court?

He’s military on Active Duty and this happened on a military installation. Looks to me like there’s no civilian jurisdiction for this.

And if he can’t be “made well,” what then?

Put him in prison with pictures of his victims surrounding him.

He might like that.

He’s in a coma. As long as he’s in a coma, he can’t be charged or tried. Even if he comes out of the coma, he may be too brain damaged to face a trial or explain anything.

Diogenese the Cynic: Exactly. But, evidently, it’s too much fun for others to decide what the man’s motives were without hearing it from him. I guess “Crazy” just doesn’t computer for some people.

Dratted misspellings! The final sentence in #247 should read:

He has a history of speaking out in a manner consistent with Islamic extremism.

From AP:
**Classmates participating in a 2007-2008 master’s program at a military college complained repeatedly to superiors about what they considered Hasan’s anti-American views. Dr. Val Finnell said Hasan gave a presentation at the Uniformed Services University that justified suicide bombing and told classmates that Islamic law trumped the U.S. Constitution.

Another classmate said he complained to five officers and two civilian faculty members at the university. He wrote in a command climate survey sent to Pentagon officials that fear in the military of being seen as politically incorrect prevented an “intellectually honest discussion of Islamic ideology” in the ranks. The classmate also requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.**

Crazy is not the word I would use.

Given his profession and the role that he was in, I’m wondering if vicarious trauma played a role.
For those unfamiliar with the term, it refers to the negative effects of working with people who have traumatic experiences. It can effect mental health workers (and others) in a number of fields.
I’m not ruling out other contributing factors, but I think it’s always worth considering whether there are sufficient systems in place to identify workers who are suffering from trauma related illness before something tragic happens.

While this is strictly true, there was an execution in 2003 of Louis Jones Jr., who had kidnapped a female PFC from an Army base and killed her. Jones hadn’t himself been on active duty for two years, however.

The obvious thing to do with the shooter if he comes out of the coma compos mentis, is to lead by example and show the Muslim world true mercy. Or, you could drag him out of the courtroom and lynch him. Whichever is more satisfying, I suppose.

The obvious thing to do would be to try him according to the law.

The Paper Of Record (notoriously fascist) is still reporting Allahu Akbar, in a fairly circumstantial account of the chronology. I’m going to take it as established.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/us/09reconstruct.html?hp

Yep, he totally said that shit.

I repeat, this is a phrase known to approximately . . . 1% (over generous) of non-college-educated Americans. We’re always hearing how provincial and unworldly Americans are – but now we’re to be expected to impute to them a knowledge of a single Arabic phrase?

Similar note: DtC, ever spent much time in Kileen? I’ve spent some time there. America-bashing aside, the two things I remember are that the locals were still talking about the time Elvis spent the night there, and the WhataBurger took a very confused 45 minutes to assemble my cheeseburger and fries. Arabic linguists are vanishingly scarce on the ground.

Oh, here are two lovely little soundbites from today:

HTF does this have anything to do with “homeland” security? The missions I see listed on the DHS homepage are: Counterterrorism; Border Security; Preparedness, Response, Recovery; and Immigration. Also and BTW, the FBI has full jurisdiction over any putative concerns about domestic civil rights violations (none of which have actually been established, but dont’cha know you’ve got to focus on the backlash first).

Another F’ing Moron – I hope to God none of the ACTUAL as opposed to hypothetical victims’ families saw this gem:

The General is exactly right, but that’s ok, it’s a free country. You are still allowed to personally hate Muslims all you want. Just don’t expect either the US Military or the US Government to validate it for you.

Find the word “hate” in my posts.

I’ll express my freedom of opinion by continuing to think that thirteen human lives are more important than some nebulous “diversity.” Question though: at what point is this precious “diversity” NOT more important? How many lives, I mean? 130? 1300? 13,000?

“Diversity” is just an allusion to equal rights. How many lives are basic human rights worth?

You mean like the basic human right not to be investigated when you espouse religiously based views that were directly contrary to your oath as an officer, pretty clearly seditious, which others have complained about, because of sensitivity that this would be “discriminatory?”:

Yeah, that basic human “diversity” right? It doesn’t exist.

If he’d said any other Arabic phrase, they probably wouldn’t. But I think most Americans would know “Allah Akbar”. We hear it all the time in the context of crazy Islamic terrorists.

Christian officers do it all the time.

ETA, Gen. Casey was still only talking about not retaliating against other Muslims in the military just because they’re Muslims, and not moving in any kind of direction towards religious or racial discrimination. I’m sure you would agree that surrendering our principles of equal rights would be a worse tragedy even than this freak accident.