Pentagon's Hasan Nightmare

The following item that appeared in the April 22, 2009 edition of Army Times was about as routine as can be when it comes to Army business. It read "Orders authorizing May promotions for the following active-component commissioned officers and warrant officers have been issued by Human Resources Command." The name buried among the dozens who got promotions was newly commissioned Major Nidal Malik Hasan. From the promotion, it seemed that Hasan was moving up the army food chain.

So the always tormenting question in the aftermath of a murder rampage is why did the alleged shooter snap? The question is even more tormenting when the alleged shooter is an officer and an educated professional who to all outward purposes seemed to have found a stable home in the army. The one answer so far is that Hasan didn't like American war involvement and was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan.

The war opposition and the prospect of being dumped on a battleground thousands of miles away may well have triggered Hasan's alleged violent, deranged, whacked out moment of mass murder. His alleged mass murder spree is a deadly aberration. The stress that may have ignited it isn't. U.S. Army men and women are killing themselves at a skyrocketing rate.

At Ft. Hood, 75 service persons have killed themselves since the Iraq war began in 2003. This year, nine so far have killed themselves. In 2008, the military suicide numbers went through the roof. More soldiers killed themselves than at any time since the Pentagon began tracking suicide deaths nearly thirty years ago. The twenty-plus suicides of soldiers last January topped the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan that month.

The single greatest factor in the mounting self-induced soldier body count is the wars, and the stress of either fighting them, the prospect of fighting them, and the miserable lack of support service personnel often receive before and after their tour of duty. The military brass has only belatedly recognized the problem of stress related violence as a deadly problem that can wreck the morale of fighting men and women and pose a deadly threat to other service personnel. The Army's answer is to shoot or pump the legions of on edge service personnel with pills, shots, scatter shot counseling and therapy, and piece meal officer training. The Army is in the midst of a five year study with the revealing label, Battlemind to identify factors that affect the mental and behavioral well being of soldiers. None of the Pentagon's efforts has stemmed the rising tide of soldiers murdering themselves. And now as Hasan has allegedly shown, an off the edge soldier murdering other American soldiers. The army's main concern as always is to keep the bodies moving as quickly as possible to bases, new assignments, deployments, and, of course, the battlefields. Hasan was one of those bodies.

The most frightening thing about his alleged rampage is that he was not an army enlistee in his late teens or early twenties. He was a trained medical officer, a specialist, and a career officer. He's now a frightening example of the army's miserable failure to get a handle on the nightmare stress related violence that has claimed so many of its own. Add to the lengthening list of casualties the dozen killed and thirty or more wounded at Ft. Hood.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book, How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge (Middle Passage Press) will be released in January 2010.

 

Comments

[AWAMORI]

"The officials said a continuing search of Major Hasan’s computer indicates that he had logged on to Web sites that celebrated radical Islamic ideologies and that he had exchanged e-mail messages with like-minded people, some possibly overseas. In addition, they believe that he may have written inflammatory Internet postings that justified suicide attacks, though that has not been concretely established."

[offred]

The increase in suicides more than likely has its basis in the Bush/Cheney drive to staff up the army for two wars.

After being harassed to meet recruitment quotas and nearly driven into breakdowns, army recruiters were accepting recruits with gang tattoos, mental disorders, felony records, and Aryan/white power affiliations.

Relax criteria, and you court disaster. We could conceivably have urban gangbangers who know enough about explosives to bring down a police station, or veterans with PTSD hallucinating that the government will take away their personal arsenals.

Before Hasan's name was released, a CNN reporter said she'd just received an e-mail from a soldier saying that recruiting standards had been so lowered that gang members were enlisting and that there was gang activity at Fort Hood. The other anchors' looked stunned, then General Batista, who was on the phone, said gang members wouldn't make it through screening.

A week ago, nobody would have thought a problem soldier like Hasan would treat soldiers for six years, get a bad evaluation, get promoted to major, and then--with his history of being against the wars in the Mideast--be scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, he'd treat mentally fragile soldiers, be around weapons, and be in an ideal position to desert and become Al Jazeera's latest poster boy.

Sounds to me like the Army needs to investigate its recruiting and screening processes.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1889152,00.html

[S1m0n]

I'm pretty sure that the army 'dumps' no shrinks into battlefields. Whether there or here, a doctor treating soldiers for PTSD does pretty much the same work.

[middleoftheroad]

We dont actually know what made him do this...maybe, just maybe....could he have had a deep hatred for the US and it's policy??? It seems like he has been spewing anti US opinions for a very long time.

[GYRainforest]

Earl, do not blame the military. The shooter's action was based on his ideaology, and religious fanaticism, and not stress. There is no way any system can thoroughly prevent the results of religious fanaticism. This incident is the first, but will not be the last. There is a lot of 'holy-hate' simmering in Muslims believers which propels them to take action. It is time America wake up to the reality.

[clevelandchick]

The shooter was a Major in the miltary. That means he spent some time there as a career person before he snapped. Your assessment does not jive with reality. The guy snapped, he did not want to got to Afghanistan. As a psychiatrist he listened every day soldiers recount killing innocent civiilians for whaterver reason.

I has nothing to do with this mans race but his state of mind.

[dwedge]

It's far too easy to single out this man for his religion. Muslims have served honorably in all branches of the service. The fact is, this man's behavior presented warning signs. It is incidental that he was a devout muslim and made no secret of the fact that he opposed America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Furthermore, he was very vocal about the fact that he did not want to deploy, and in fact, wanted out. The Army has let people out of deployment simply because they questioned the CINC's credentials. So to give this man some consideration in that regard is hardly going to break the whole system. There were several reasons to look very hard at this guy's behaviour and demeanor long before he became a danger to himself and others -- in fact, long before he was promoted. The Army has a serious problem (and has for some time) with suicides resulting the stress of repeated deployments. Why should someone going off the deep end be such a shock? Like it's never happened before?

[cutegrl37]

As as army wife, one who was not sure if her husband was hurt or not until 1500, I find it offensive in the extreme to have any sympathy for this coward at all. Because coward he is. This person HAD NEVER BEEN DEPLOYED. He was a psychiatrist. He would not be in a forward postion, EVER.. My husband has been deployed, and will be again. Yes, there should be better programs in place for returning servicemen and women who have PTSD. No, young soldiers should not have to be deployed three or four times in six years. But as this is a VOLUNTEER army, until every U.S. citizen wants to devote a term of service to his or her country, deployments will continue . Do I believe this man "cracked because of stress'? No, because to reiterate, he had NEVER BEEN DEPLOYED. To crack because he was fearful of being deployed? The chance he might actually have to serve in a military that is actually at war, is one that any soldier takes who puts on the uniform of a United States Soldier.

[zitlight73]

"We must do better by our service men and women!" You'll hear these words and words like them for about a week then the politicians who say them and the media that reports them will fly off on another balloon boy story ad nauseum. I just talked to a Iraqi War vet today who was blown up in Kitrit and it took him over a half a year to learn to walk again. I asked him if he's getting any help from the V.A. he told me he gave up on them and quit wasting his with them.

[William50]

I love the American mind set. Here we have a man who is killing people and already we are looking at ways to accept his actions.

I would suggest that what happened was the military going out of its way to engage and combine the full flavor, except if you may be gay, of America into the new military. I would also say that his religion was not allowed to be examined by the review boards because it looked so good to have him promoted. Does this mean every one who is of his religion and background should be thrown out? No. Still a review of anyone of the religion who has made comments about not being willing to serve America over ideals of his religion should be looked at and reviewed.

My heart is sorrowed by his actions. I am proud of the actions of all who stopped this mad man. I would suggest that it is time to arm a few more people in our military bases.

Finally do not, do not find reasons for his actions. They do not matter. Instead look and make sure you are doing everything to keep this from happening again.
middleamerican2010
Casey

[clevelandchick]

Many other Americans who practice the Muslim faith have fought and died for this country in these and other wars. You dishonor their sacrifice for their country with your words. What you propose is religious discrimination and that's against the principles of our country. Shameful.

[daybranch]

Much is mentioned about possible PTSD. I know of no health professional that would ever say you could get PTSD from talking to those who have it or those who have hads traumatic experiences in war. For the Army or the Veterans administration to diagnose mental problems as PTSD, there has to be a point at which the victim felt certain of his immediate death and powerless to do anything to stop it. No such thing happened to this shooter to our knowledge and references to PTSD as a cause for his Jihadist actions are insults to those who fought our nation's wars and suffer from PTSD.

[clevelandchick]

Psychiatrists have one of the highest rates of suicide among all professions. Are you saying listening to the hell soldiers went through day in and day out is not going to have an effect on someone's psyche?

[GOPfreedSlaves]

Soldiers returning home from war commit less murders per capita than the general population. So this attempt to make this guy into some sort of "post traumatic stress" case and blame the war is warped thinking, especially giventhe fact this guy had never seen the battlefield.

[stanblack]

What do you know? Don't bother answering.

[csavage]

I'm amazed comparative lack of insight with some of these posts. Why do people go to medical school? To help people. I would daresay that most nonmedical people have no idea of the depths of empathy some people can have. I'm probably the only huffposter that has been an active duty military doctor so I can tell you somethings you guys may not be considering. Yes, he probably wasn't too keen on being deployed but he has productivity numbers to make and he's working in a field where he's expected to care for ever increasing numbers of patients, none of whom are going to be adequately supported by the Army and all of whom are going to be expected to return to the battlefield, even the ones he really thinks shouldn't be. If they crack, it will be his fault. Add on to the fact that the military doesn't allow it's own physicians to require medical care or psychiatric care without being in danger of losing their ability to practice medicine for the remainder of their lives. Together, that results in someone feeling very isolated and hopeless and, if they have access to a gun, can make them suicidal or homicidal. Doctors have 2-4 times the risk of suicide as the general population-the civilian ones. Throw being military into the mix....
Oh, yes, I think what we saw yesterday was a suicide attempt-it's called "death by cop"

[abdallac]

Thank you for your insight. May God keep you safe and help you to continue to care for those under your watch.

[Bobzmcishl]

This cold blooded killer had all of the advantages the United States could offer. He enlisted in the Army and had all of his education paid for by the Army which allowed him to become an officer and in a prestigious occupation. His training should have given him the ability to remain calm under undue stress. There is a weak link in here somewhere. If he was given an "unsatifactory" performance review, why was he promoted to Major and why would he be assigned to Afghanistan rather than in a position where he could be more carefully evaluatied. His superior officer(s) should also be called to account. There seemed to be a lot of warning signs that went unheeded. My understanding is that a bad review in the officer ranks at that level is grounds for removal from the service. The Army must be so short handed they are compromising their own standards. This is another sad day for America.

[liveandlearn]

as someone said elsewhere, the official policy is to dismiss gay soldiers no matter how well they serve but to refuse others permission to leave.

[obitrey]

All good points about the effect of war on soldiers, but this guy, was not suffering from PTSD. He had not seen the battle field yet, and even when deployed he would probably never see live combat since he was a doctor, not even a field medic. So any attempt mediate his actions as anything other than cold blooded murder is a disgrace to those he murdered, and our suffering soldiers.

[bajed]

Agreed.

[FortressOrange]

Well said.

[NWNHNM]

Disagree. He was treating soldiers who had PTSD. It has been known for the last 30 years that those who counsel people with PTSD are at risk for developing secondary PTSD. This is also experienced by family members living with those with PTSD.

The life of a person with PTSD is a daily re-experience of the initial trauma. If you are living with (or treating) a person with PTSD, the trauma experience is going on in your presence, and that alone is traumatizing.

You don't need to have experienced the initial trauma (say, a battlefield situation) to be traumatized. PTSD is the gift that keeps on giving.

[obitrey]

Really? You can not be serious. Your saying a doctors second hand experience through a soldiers actual experience can cause PTSD....what at night does he wake in cold sweats re-living a rough session with his patient. This would be funny...if it was not soooooo SAD!

[John Robert]

This must be prosecuted as a hate crime..

[Deninor]

In the recent act of terrorism (Can a massacre not be terrorism?) at Fort Hood shows that Nidal Hasan most likely suffered from Pre-Post-T­raumatic-S­yndrome-Di­sease doesn't it? deninor

[bajed]

There is NO evidence that Major Hasan suffered from PTSD. None.