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Excusing Treason and Mass Murder

David C. Stolinsky, MD
Nov. 12, 2009

Sometimes I must laugh to avoid being overcome by anger. Discussing the attack on Fort Hood, Geraldo Rivera belittled the possibility of terrorism, and suggested that Major Hasan was a sociopath who may have been set off by a “toothache.”

By coincidence, three days before the Fort Hood attack, I had oral surgery. The dentist was skillful, but I had some postoperative pain. Oddly, however, I had no urge to commit treason and mass murder.

I spent 20 years practicing and teaching medical oncology, dealing with hundreds of patients with advanced cancer. But in all that time, none of my patients ever expressed the vaguest hint of wanting to harm others. I find the idea insulting to all those who suffer pain. Physical pain causes suffering, not a desire to inflict suffering on others. That desire comes from somewhere else − hatred for the “other” and a feeling of superiority.

Hasan is not a sociopath − he had no criminal record. Antisocial personality disorder is a legitimate diagnosis, but in what way does it add more information than the earlier terminology, in which such people were called “chronic offenders” or “habitual criminals”?

Giving something a scientific name does not mean that we understand it any better, much less that we know how to deal with it.

Hasan went through medical school, a psychiatry residency and a master’s program in public health. He was observed daily by mental-health professionals. They noted no signs of a mental disorder. They did, however, complain about his radical Islamic beliefs and his anti-American rants. Obviously, too little attention was paid to these complaints. Whatever Hasan’s problems were, they involved not his mental functioning but his belief system.

Giving something an incorrect scientific name proves that we do not understand it, and that we are not even on the road to finding out how to deal with it.

Meanwhile, Chris Matthews on MSNBC declared that we may never know whether religion might be a “factor” in the Fort Hood attack. Just a “factor”? Matthews went on to comment on reports that Hasan repeatedly e-mailed a violently anti-American imam. Matthews asked the brilliantly perceptive question, “That’s not a crime to call up Al Qaeda, is it? Is it? I mean, where do you stop the guy?” How about before he kills 14 people and wounds 30? Yes, 14. One of his victims was pregnant.

General George Casey, Army Chief of Staff, referred to the attack as a “tragedy,” as if the deaths occurred in an earthquake. He echoed President Obama’s warning not to “jump to conclusions.” Okay, could we at least crawl to conclusions? Casey did not comment on why the Army did nothing, and even promoted Hasan, after being informed that he had contacted terrorists.

President Obama suggested Hasan “cracked” from “the most severe stress.” What stress? The stress of seeing psychiatric patients in a modern American hospital? Isn’t that what Hasan wanted to do for the rest of his working life? How is that “the most severe stress”?

Alan Colmes on Fox News opined, “You’ve got an incredible overreaction to one crazy person.” This remark sums up the liberal position beautifully. First, it wasn’t “one person;” it was the latest in a long succession of terrorist acts. Second, he wasn’t crazy. Third, there was no “overreaction;” there was no reaction at all. To a liberal, even talking about the attack is an “overreaction.” Actually doing something would be unthinkable.

A New York Times story about the massacre was titled, “At Army Base, Some Violence Is Too Familiar,” thus obscuring the nature of the attack and belittling the suffering of the victims. The Los Angeles Times carried a similar “news” story. The fact is that active-duty troops have lower rates of homicide and suicide than do civilian males of the same age group. This is obviously true. The military does not accept those with records of crime or mental illness, and it discharges criminals, alcoholics and drug users.

The assumption of liberals and the mainstream media is that if a soldier or a veteran kills himself or someone else, it must be because of his military service. How is this any different, intellectually or morally, from saying that someone becomes a murderer because he is black? If there is a clearer example of prejudice, I have yet to see it.

And if there is a clearer example of attempting to shift the blame from extremist Muslims to U.S. troops, I have yet to see that, either. But what a window this gives us into the minds of many liberals. They put the blame on our best, our troops, and not on our enemies’ worst, the terrorists. That really says it all.

But even if one falsely blames soldiers for being prone to suicide and homicide, Hasan was not a soldier. He was a medical officer who had been through medical training at taxpayers’ expense, and since then had worked only four or five months at an Army hospital in Texas.

Before going on active duty with the Public Health Service, I spent three years in the Army Reserve. I wore the uniform proudly, saluted smartly, and generally did as I was told. But I was just a physician in uniform. It embarrassed me when a gray-haired master sergeant with combat decorations addressed me as “sir.” I never fooled myself that I was a soldier. I hadn’t earned that title.

Neither had Hasan. He had no conception of real traumatic stress. He was a psychiatrist in uniform, and apparently not a good one. He had no empathy for his patients. He despised them as “infidels” who deserved to have their throats cut. But to discover this highly relevant fact, I had to go to a British newspaper’s website. Why?

Now we are being treated to speculation about why Hasan “snapped.” Was he disliked because he was a Muslim? (No, because he was an anti-American loudmouth.) Did he “catch” post-traumatic stress disorder from his patients? (You can’t.) Did he have “pre-traumatic stress disorder”? (It doesn’t exist.) Did he have trouble with potty training when he was little? And so on, ad nauseam.

The problem is not what imaginary mental disorder afflicted Hasan. The problem is what real mental disorder afflicts us:

·         It prevents us from seeing reality, even when reality hits us in the face.

·         If forces us to utter meaningless drivel instead of intelligent commentary.

·         It turns us from thinking beings into politically correct robots.

·         It compels us to look at the obvious and claim it is a “mystery.”

·         It turns our brains into mush, so that we respond to danger by parroting ludicrous claptrap, instead of by acting vigorously to deal with the danger.

·         It causes us to fear being politically incorrect more than we fear being murdered by terrorists.

·         It causes us to fail in our duty to defend the nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to assure the safety of those who depend on our leadership.

·         It leaves us vulnerable to enemies who plan to destroy us.

We are the ones with a mental disorder. Perhaps we should see a psychiatrist. Oh, wait − that might not be a good idea under the circumstances. Instead, maybe we should just get our heads straight.

And as far as Geraldo is concerned, the problem is not Hasan’s imaginary toothache. The problem is the real pain in the opposite end of the body that Geraldo and his liberal friends have become. They are worse than useless. They are actively obscuring the truth.

General Casey knew precisely what political correctness required of him. He declared, “And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.” Diversity of what? Diversity of race, religion, ethnic origin and gender? Fine. But diversity of loyalty? Can we tolerate some troops who are loyal to the United States, and some who are loyal to our enemies? That leads to the ultimate diversity: some troops who are above ground, and some who are in it. There, is that diverse enough for you, sir?

November 11 was Veterans Day. It is important to honor our veterans. It is even more important to do our best to assure that our troops live long enough to become veterans.

Dr. Stolinsky writes on political and social issues. He can be contacted at dstol@prodigy.net.

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