Last week, Fort Hood, Texas was rocked by a mass shooting in which 13 people died and more than 30 were injured. Fort Hood, the largest U.S. military base in the world, is an unlikely place for a mass killing - presumably one of the most heavily fortified and protected locations in America. But alas, the killer was a fellow soldier, Major Nidal Hasan, so this tragedy also has the dubious distinction of being the worst incident of an American serviceman attacking his comrades.
It’s one thing to commit suicide, but it takes a very special kind of disturbed person to open fire in a crowd of unarmed people. A major investigation is now under way to determine how Major Hasan could have possibly flown under the radar and reached the breaking point. And it seems there were a few BIG indicators that were missed...
First and foremost, Major Hasan, despite enlisting over 20 years ago (read: free choice) had never seen active combat and was desperately fighting his imminent deployment to Afghanistan. He was a psychiatrist, trained to help heal military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from war zones. Yet, this man was so traumatized by the trauma he heard about, he couldn’t face the prospect of actually witnessing it first-hand. His former patients are no doubt reevaluating everything he ever said and wondering why on earth the military was still employing him.
Hasan’s former colleagues in the psychiatric departments should also be doing a little navel gazing. This is a man who as part of his medical residency program wrote a thesis on “Whether the War on Terror is a War on Islam” - not the best guy to be counseling wounded soldiers returning from waging war in the Middle East. Yikes. This glaring lack of response from fellow doctors to Hasan’s increasingly erratic behaviour is a major stain on the reputation of the mental health profession.
Major Hasan didn’t fit in. No kidding. He refused to participate in such minor social norms as being in the same photograph with a woman. Isn’t the military supposed to be a command organization? You do what you’re told! Maybe Hasan skipped basic training, or was too busy in the hospital and missed the memo on military “corporate culture”. Regardless, wearing traditional Arab garb in the heart of the bible-belt while living on a military base is a sure-fire way to be alienated.
Know for his ardent anti-war, pro-Islam stance, Major Hasan fought very hard to be released from his military contract. Why didn’t the Army let him resign and then forward his file to the FBI for follow-up?? Medical services in the military are reportedly stretched thin, but to retain a doctor unwilling to follow orders and terrified of treating soldiers in a combat zone is a huge liability.
The absurd irony is that Major Hasan, recently promoted from Captain, had also just completed a fellowship in Disaster and Preventative Psychiatry. Little did he realize he was the disaster and those around him should have practiced a little more preventative medicine.
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