Fort Hood Shooting

Asking for my opinion on the Ft Hood shootings.

To be honest, I don't know a whole lot about the circumstances, but then, I don't think anybody can really understand why this guy decided to commit this horrendous act, especially considering that he was a Psychiatrist. People are asking why this man who apparently snapped could be allowed to stay in after it turns out that there was a record of this guy not being exactly stable.

So, why in the hell was he in the army still despite this?

Having some experience in the Medical Field, I can tell you for one thing that the military is hurting in some specialized fields such as psychiatry and psychology, and despite his less then glowing evaluations while stationed at Walter Reed he still made Major. Me, I'm not surprised by that one bit. But that's neither here nor there.

Was his religion a motivation for his acts? I would think it played a big part and we need to confront this issue of radical islam instead of being PC about it and tiptoeing around in case we offend somebody. Those that are muslim but not in agreement with the concept of Jihad against the United States and some guy opening fire in a crowd screaming "Allahu Akbar" should be condemning this act for what it is, an act on terror in the name of an ideaology.

People are trying to fit the pieces together, I've been kind of holed up from the world for the last few days trying to recoop from twenty six days on the road sleeping in hostels, friend's couches, hotel rooms and the back of my pick up (hey, whatever's cheap, right) I've been kind of mum on subjects like this. and I don't know all the facts. Do i think it's a heinous crime? indeed I do, and there is a reason why it was taken out at a military base, there are a lot of factors at play here, and a lot of innocent lives were lost.

To be honest, I don't know enough to really give an honest assessment of what happened without giving some knee jerk reaction. I'm actually more willing to give my opinion on this incident, which happened in September, because I worked with the guy involved, who was one of my battle buddies on the trail last year (yes, my disgruntled supply sergeant days). But I don't know all the facts there either and I don't feel its my place to rush to judgment.

It's easy to get passionate about something when you only have part of the story. But i don't believe PTSD was the issue, and his religion and political beliefs were definitely a factor. I'll leave it at that.

UPDATE - I think I'll default to THIS POST on Right Wing News. He's done more research on the topic then I have, and I'm in agreement with what he says.