Fort Hood shooting a flashback to 'fragging'

Thank you, Rabbi Waskow. Especially for the passage " If --- IF, the Prophetic word --- If we seriously want to help grow a grass-roots democracy there, we might send teams of women from American community banks to provide grass-roots micro-loans to those who are prepared to use them , especially including women, while abandoning the self-destructive effort to impose democracy with Predators. Then Fort Hood might help Americans grow into a new relationship with the hundreds of millions of Muslims who seek to shape their own futures in peace."
If you allow me to add to your great wisdom. Even if America's real motive is to make sure that the Eurasian nations of China, Russia, the Muslim group of countries (Afghanistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, the CIS countries, etc) do not monopolize control of the vast energy resources of Central Asia, the way to do it is through the diplomatic measures of trade/technological exchange/investment coordination suport at a regional level that allows the regional mid-level powers the determining say in the management of these resources, while factoring-in, responsibly, Western concerns. WAR IS A FAILURE OF REASON THAT DEHUMANISES US ALL, THE VICTIM AS WELL AS THE AGGRESSOR,MAYBE MORE SO THE AGGRESSOR.

"If he has been given the chance to post a pseudo Op Ed piece, then I expect him to be factual..."

TravelinSam,

You do understand, don't you, that the "Op" part of "Op Ed" stands for "opinion"?

If instead the American public chooses to define Fort Hood as proof that Islam is a world of hatred, then the cage of violence that some Muslims, some Christians, some Jews, some Hindus are helping build will clang shut upon us all.

Rabbi, the Muslim people need your prayers.  Tomorrow night is the Night of November 9.  It is the Night of the Broken Glass.  Please pray for us all, that the spirit of evil which sucked up the German people and the Jewish people some seventy years ago, is not again on the prowl for families to crush and souls to steal.

Notice there's no fragging going on in any of the wars since. There wouldn't be even if we had a draft again. Too many people from that era don't see the difference between themselves and those younger than they are. This is one of the differences, we don't do that crap.

This event has no deep meaning. An antisocial loner went off the deep end and killed some innocent bystanders. No different from the guy in the Holocaust Museum, except that he was more successful at it.

People with certain mental disorders tend to be attracted to ideologies that make them feel grandiose and powerful. So instead of perceiving himself for what he really was - a stupid destructive selfish loser - he imagined himself a heroic shining martyr to a grand cause, cut down in battle while defending his people against their natural enemies.

What a loser. Just like the other guy.

"pgould1" You hit the nail on the head.

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity".

This was an act of war committed by an American hating traitor to this country. The soldiers that died were killed in action by a resolute enemy to this country.

Sometimes it helps to remember Ockham's Razor when trying to understand "seemingly" irrational behavior. What happened at Ft. Hood yesterday is not all that complicated. Unfortunately, it is the obvious simplicity of the perp's motives that tends to scare us all so much.

kjohnson3

Reread my comment. I specifically said that, "he may have had a commitment to serve several years once he VOLUNTEERED".

Having served in the all volunteer force, I understand that once enlisting or receiving a commission, one has the commitment to serve out whatever term you have agreed to (as you pointed out, IF he had been educated at the expense of the military, he would "owe" them a period of several years).

But to bring my point back, he was a VOLUNTEER...he was not shanghaied by the military and FORCED to serve.

As far as "sneering disrespect" towards Arthur Waskow, I will apologize for calling him an idiot. However, his ill-informed comments were IDIOTIC. If any of us provide comment that is in error we deserve to be called out.

You said:

"he's a writing his opinion in a forum that solicits opinion, not news or facts."

That, my friend is baloney. Yes, this forum does solicit "opinion" but it should be a "fact based" opinion that we post. If he has been given the chance to post a pseudo Op Ed piece, then I expect him to be factual...you can be impassioned and still factual. If we can't expect facts, then why even read the piece?

TravlinSam,

You don't seem to understand the nature of military commitments. One may volunteer to join the army, but then one is committed to serving out his/her enlistment tour. (Otherwise, departure is considered AWOL, and you can be imprisoned.) Furthermore, a medical doctor who has been educated at military expense must fulfill a specific commitment of years. The army isn't going to spend a fortune on your medical education and then just let you walk away.

I cannot understand the sneering disrespect you direct at Rabbi Waskow. Why would you call him an "idiot"? And why do you say he should "report on this more objectively"? He's not a reporter; he's a writing his opinion in a forum that solicits opinion, not news or facts.

While I would not like to call anyone an idiot, you certainly come much closer than he to meeting the description.

Thanks you, Rabbi Waskow, for speaking in the voice of reason on this horrific incident. Everything you note here is inescapable fact.

Arthur your reason for fragging is wrong. The only reason for fragging an officer in Nam was, if he was totally screwed up. Not for ordering you in to combat. I know this may come as a shock but we never lost a major engagement. The war was lost because politicians at the time choosing to fight a defensive war, sorta like they are getting ready to do in Afghanistan now and I am sure with the same results.

Wake up...this was a sick individual regardless of whichever religion he chose to be a part of.

You said,

"In that sense he replicated the violence of the war he abhorred and the violence that kept him in the Army against his will"

Again...WAKE UP.

This Army is an all VOLUNTEER force. Nobody is being kept "against their will" and those that serve choose to do so by their own "FREE WILL"...he may have had a commitment to serve several years once he VOLUNTEERED, but nobody is being kept "against their will"...the "fragging" done in Viet Nam was more isolated than you portray and these soldiers were primarily ones that were DRAFTED you idiot.

Quit apologizing for this murderer and accept the fact that he was a sick individual that snapped and committed a heinous crime.

Hey...how about this "IF" you woke up and looked at this world from an un-blindered perspective (not letting Islam blinker you) then maybe you could report on this more objectively...until then, quit making non-muslims out to be the bad guys.