1 Boring Old Man

I was working on a project all day, but tuned in and out of the news about about Major Hasan. It doesn’t seem all that confusing to me. One thing is clear – he had few connections with people in the world – a loner. He apparently sold his soul to the Army in return for his medical training [which would have begun well before 9/11]. Once in that pipeline, there’s no exit. His life was his work and his religion. That’s all he seemed to have. He was apparently in the market for a wife – one who was as religiously observant as himself. Everyone that knew him reported that he was in a huge double bind. He was opposed to our Middle Eastern wars in general, and personally wanted no part of being sent there. He said it to his colleagues, to his relatives, to an audience of peers, even to the Convenience Store owner where he bought his coffee each morning. He framed it as a dilemma: he was being sent to Afghanistan to kill other Muslims in a "war on Islam."

So he was living in a small barely furnished apartment near Fort Hood wearing full Muslim clothing, spending his days listening to emotionally scarred veterans talk of the horror of war, going to a Mosque frequently, and awaiting deployment to Afghanistan! It sounds like he saw his fate as to either kill and/or be killed by other Muslims, or to kill and/or be killed by other Americans. Yesterday, he made his choice.

Did he act alone? Sure. He did everything alone. Could he be stopped. Sure. Don’t send someone who is that vocal about not wanting to go to war in Afghanistan to Fort Hood with a deployment date. Was he crazy? He had an obvious personality disorder  from the description – Schizoid Personality [shy, introverted, serious, detached, alienated, paranoid], but he doesn’t sound psychotic.