Greg Krehbiel
Is the pendulum about to swing again?
by Greg Krehbiel on 5 November 2009
In WWII we distrusted and mistreated loyal Americans of Japanese and German descent.
Now it seems (just my impression) that we bend over backwards not to repeat that mistake with American Moslems.
Will yesterday’s big story change that?
See Hasan Was ‘Mortified’ About Deployment to War
It looks like there was good cause to keep an eye on this guy.
2009-11-05 » Greg Krehbiel
6 November 2009 @ 7:40 am
What a weird story. Here is a guy who has been through Medical School, becomes a psychiatrist, and cannot face up to the personal strain of being a Muslim in the USArmy? He should have gotten “help” long ago. It is hard to see this as much different than the folks who enlisted in various branches of the service and accepted the benefits, right up until they actually had to fulfill the harder parts of their committments.
6 November 2009 @ 9:31 am
I hope this is just a case of one disturbed person, but there were reports yesterday that he had made various nut-wing Moslem comments over the years, and that he had help in his attack yesterday, which may indicate a larger problem.
6 November 2009 @ 11:39 am
Fundamentalist Islam cannot be reconciled with democracy or national allegiance. To many, Islam is a religion, form of government and arbiter of all social behavior with the authority to crush anything that stands in its way. The military should be openly wary of deeply religious Muslims.
6 November 2009 @ 11:45 am
First, some of the most screwed up people I have ever known were psychiatrists of children of psychiatrists.
Second, I have heard little that indicates to me that his being a Moslem had much to do with this. I think he heard the stories and was terrified to be deployed. There has been some doubt expressed about whether the person making the Internet posts is the same person as the shooter.
Sounds to me like a guy who went off the deep end and his religion had little to do with it.
6 November 2009 @ 11:46 am
I agree. Or at least the military should be wary of deeply religious fundamentalist Muslims. I’m willing to believe there are moderate forms of Islam our there that aren’t wacky.
6 November 2009 @ 11:49 am
That may be it, John, but I heard reports last night about wacky comments he made in person to friends and colleagues, so the “he’s a Moslem nut” argument doesn’t hang on the rather iffy connection to the internet poster.
I agree with your assessment of psychology. What is it about psychology that messes people up so badly?
6 November 2009 @ 12:46 pm
The completely wacky idea that we know why we do what we do. It leads to trouble whether in psychology or spiritualism or evolutionary psychology.
6 November 2009 @ 12:52 pm
There was a Star Trek: DS9 episode a long time ago where Worf was in trouble because he had fired on a (supposedly) unarmed ship. There was a court martial or something like that and the attorney representing the Klingon side (against Worf) was speaking to Worf privately.
Worf said something about his motives, and the Klingon attorney laughed at the idea. He said something like “Humans may care about your motives. We care about your actions.”
I’ve often thought about that.
I realize this contrasts with what I said about hate crimes, but ISTM there is great value in judging people by what they do — without any reference to how they feel or what they believe or what they intended or any of that.
6 November 2009 @ 12:55 pm
I just saw this post on a blog written by a graduate student in biology who has had to move around to follow his wife’s military career.
6 November 2009 @ 1:31 pm
Okay, here’s what I don’t get.
These wars have been going on for 8 and 6 years respectively.
The PTSD stuff did not start last week.
What was he doing STILL IN THE ARMY if he was so freaked out about the possibility of deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan? I know we’ve all heard the stories about people not being allowed to leave at the end of a term of service, but I’ll bet that rarely applies to medical personnel.
And yes, people who work in psychology and social work are frequently the most messed up people there are. I think they go in looking to fix things for other people, that no one fixed for them.
6 November 2009 @ 3:29 pm
@Pentamom -
He was still in the Army because the Army had paid for all his school, and it was time to pay back. A convenient time to suddenly have doubts about service.