Fort Hood: The combat stress debate
The suicide rate among Fort Hood's returning soldiers is unusually high. Did their stress unhinge Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan?
US soldiers shown on patrol in Iraq. Could combat stress be behind the Fort Hood rampage?
(Reuters/Corbis/Goran Tomasevic)
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged killer behind the Fort Hood massacre, was trained to treat soldiers under stress. He worked in an atmosphere where the aftermath of combat takes a heavy toll -- Fort Hood has one of the highest suicide rates in the military. Did Hasan, a devout Muslim, just snap as he faced deployment to the war zone himself? (Watch a report about Nidal Hasan's fight against Iraq deployment)
Stress may have pushed Hasan over the edge: The motive's still hazy, say the editors of the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., Star Tribune, but this massacre raises "red flags" about combat stress. Maj. Nidal Hasan had never been in combat, but he "knew all too well the terrifying realities of war," having counseled returning soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center and at Fort Hood.
"A link to PTSD?"
Hasan may have been fighting "compassion fatigue:" It's not surprising to see a psychiatrist snap as he faces deployment, says Todd Essig in True/Slant. Treating soldiers traumatized by war is a "risky" job. Therapists can be stricken by "vicarious traumatization" -- also known as compassion fatigue. In this case, Nidal Malik Hasan was probably wounded psychologically long before he allegedly pulled the trigger.
"Vicarious traumatization: PTSD is contagious and deadly"
Hasan's faith's triggered another sort of torment: Maj. Nidal Hasan's aunt, Noel Hasan, said he'd asked to be discharged after enduring name-calling and harassment about his Muslim faith for years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, says Anne Davies in Australia's The Age. In his aunt's words, "He must have snapped."
"Why doctor snapped"
This is just the beginning: The military is overstretched, says Andrew Bast in Newsweek, and fighting two wars at once is clearly "taking a psychological toll on soldiers." With President Obama considering sending tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan, the situation could get worse. "It isn't much of a leap to argue" that further taxing our military will "guarantee that the homegrown terror on display" at Fort Hood will soon repeat itself.
"Is Fort Hood a harbinger? Nidal Malik Hasan may be a symptom of a military on the brink"
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SEE THE WEEK'S FULL COVERAGE OF FORT HOOD:
• Fort Hood: The Al-Qaeda question
• Fort Hood: What the world is saying
• Red flags at Fort Hood
• Sunday Talk Show Briefing: Religion's role in Fort Hood (Video)
• Fort Hood: Obama's "flippant" speech
• Fort Hood: Crime or terrorism?
• Who is Nidal Hasan: A timeline of the suspect's life
• What Kimberly Munley's heroism means
• Fort Hood: Breaking opinion
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31 Comments
Posted by Aaron, Friday, November 6, 2009, 2:22 pm This piece of scum was never been in combat. Don't let the apologists in the media try to skew this terrorist mole into a victim of PTSD. It dishonors the lives of those he killed as part of radical Islam's jihad. Get it?
Posted by armywife0313, Friday, November 6, 2009, 2:24 pm There isn't enough soldiers because they don't get paid according to their risky jobs. It is a shame that there is alot of military families that have to go to food banks and get put on welfare to make ends meet or not to have a vehicle because of the pay they receive. So alot of people don't want to join. Soldiers are rapidly deployed to Iraq or Afghanastan, because of the shortage of troops. There should be a better rotation of the troops but there isn't.
Posted by Tomas, Friday, November 6, 2009, 3:04 pm He had been under investigation for 6 mo. I never understand why law enforcement waits. Wait for WHAT? Bigger or worse shit to happen? To gather more information so the bad guy has time to do more or worse stuff? Stop the madness. Get them in for questioning as soon as a problem is seen. Now, 13 families are grieving for their dead, and dozens of families are waiting to see if their loved ones live. That is nuts. This guy was never over there, so this was not post tramatic crap. He wanted OUR tax money to pay for HIS education, and went bonkers
Posted by Candice, Friday, November 6, 2009, 3:07 pm AND, after spending MY tax dollars on his education, I have to pay for his hospitalization? Send him home to Granny, living in a wealthy neighborhood on the West Bank. Let her care for him because I do not want to spend one more penny of MY MONEY on this cry baby ingrateful idiot. When will this country learn that we need to treat the VICTIMS better and more compassionately than we treat the evil criminals? Why doesn't someone at the hospital trip on the cord of his ventilator? Opps
Posted by William, Friday, November 6, 2009, 3:35 pm You can take the person out of the Middle East, but you can't strip him of his ways, beliefs and upbringing. It is in their blood and hearts. Sure, Hasan was born here, but raised by parents from Palestine, who know centuries of death and destruction. It is their way. Grandma still lives there, in luxury. Hasan's way out of going to Iraq or Afghanistan, to HELP our soldiers, was to kill soldiers, on American soil. This makes no sense, until you consider his upbringing and family ways. Politically correct has no place in this murder. Hang him
Posted by jenihoney, Friday, November 6, 2009, 4:24 pm I do think its extremely hard to ignore your beleifs and upbringing But i am acaregiver and i have cared for vets who were pow and let me tell yuo IT IS POSSIBLE TO GET POST TRAUMATIC STRESS FROM HEARING THERE STORIES BECAUSE WHAT OUR SOLDIER DO IS THAT HARD dont care if they hang him or not since he is obviously extremely dangrous to the public so why pay oodles of tax dollars to keep him alive in a cell for 50 years?
Posted by jenihoney, Friday, November 6, 2009, 4:30 pm if it was your job to listen to that all day you might think twice about saying you cant get traumatic stress from what you hear
Posted by UFUK A. UCAY, Friday, November 6, 2009, 4:37 pm I do not think these terorists, Usame bin Laden and this physologically ill Hasan are muslims. They are just bloody dirty terorists and we do not accept them as muslims.We, Turkish Cypriots, have been always the biggest friends and biggest supporters of USA. We love USA too much.As a muslim comminity in North Cyprus, we apologise what these idiots had done to USA. Sorry friends.please do not publish my name and my email incase of my security
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