11/5/09

THE MILITARY WILL PUT A FALSE SPIN ON THE FORT HOOD SHOOTINGS

FORT HOOD, Texas -- A military mental health doctor facing deployment overseas opened fire at the Fort Hood Army base on Thursday, setting off on a rampage that killed 11 other people and left 31 wounded. Authorities killed the gunman. The violence was believed to be the worst mass shooting in history at a U.S. military base.
We now know they lied about his death, he is actually alive at this point. Why would they lie about it? Maybe it was wishful thinking? Does he have a story to tell? I have been waiting for something like this to happen and I am sure I am not the only one.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was probably a man who was holding on by a thread and this deployment was the last straw. Who takes care of the caretakers?  Most doctors and nurses don’t harm others when they loose it. They commit suicide, drink, or take drugs. There is a high rate of suicide and addiction among certain specialties of doctors and nurses. It is a well kept secret. These people are often the most caring and skilled in their fields. I worked at Madigan Army Hospital on Fort Lewis in Washington state during the Gulf War(not in the military). Doctors and nurses are expected to stuff their feelings in the military.


President Obama made this statement:
"These are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk, and at times give, their lives to protect the rest of us on a daily basis," Obama said. "It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6511335/Fort-Hood-shooting-12-killed-as-US-soldier-goes-on-rampage-at-Texas-army-base.html
This statement just seems very uninformed to me and my reaction is I am surprised it has not happened more often. Yes, president Obama it is horrifying, but very predictable. There is only so much people can take before they break and do something desperate. Common knowledge on military bases right now is violence has been escalating. PTSD is also caused by the workplace bullying tactics that go on in the military. It is horrible that soldiers are killed on an army base, but I believe the real cause is PTSD and the military putting a band-aid on victims of PTSD and sending them back to war. PTSD is a group of disabling symptoms such as inability to concentrate, extreme vigilance, and exaggerated fearfulness.

What do they expect? People's lives are ruined due to a war that was a lie and those who engineered the lies and torture of prisoners will never face justice in this country. If I was in the military they would have probably put me in Leavenworth. If I was assigned as a guard in one of their torture prisons I would have quoted the Genena Convention to them and refused to harm people based on morality. Who knows what they would have done. I almost joined the Army, but my father told me my commanding officer would shoot me when no one was looking. I did not understand what he meant then, now I do. I do not just blindly follow nor do I do something I think is wrong and I will not be quiet about something I think is wrong. One of the problems in not just our military, but in our government is the fear people have of coming forward as whistleblowers due to retaliation. The system of checks and balances is broken.

This was in the AP's piece earlier, I notice it is removed now:

Officials say it was not clear what Hasan's religion was, but investigators are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name or if he may have changed his name and converted to Islam at some point.(His parents were from Palestine). Now it is being reported he has been Muslim for probably most of his life.


What difference does his religion matter or his name or if he changed it at some point?  Muslims do not go around killing people. Those who do are doing it because they are members of some crazy fringe group, just like the crazy Christian groups who are organizing militia in this country. This looks like a classic case of PTSD with murder and suicide by soldier(it is usually by cop) aka suicide by proxy. We were originally told he was dead, but now they say he is in stable condition. He of course knew he would be shot and would have expected to be killed.

From CNN:
"MPAC and the Muslim American community unequivocally condemn this heinous incident," said a statement from the Los Angeles, California, based group. "Our entire organization extends its heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed as well as to those wounded and their loved ones." 
 By mentioning that they don't know the gunman's religion they are insinuating this could be a terrorist attack. This will most likely end up being PTSD, military bullying, knowing about horrific incidents and anger about fighting in an unjust war . I doubt they will ever admit to that and a cover up story may be invented. They have told base personnel not to speak to the media. My guess is they are doing damage control to stop negative information from getting out. My hope is soldiers and other health care professionals come forward.

From MSNBC:
Federal law enforcement officials also say Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats.The officials say the postings appeared to have been made by Hasan. The officials say they are still trying to confirm that he was the author. They say an official investigation was not opened. 
 
He supposedly discussed suicide bombings and wrote how he felt about them. This could be completely untrue. It would not be strange for a psychiatrist to be interested in the psychology of a person who would voluntarily die. Does anyone believe if he looked like a threat he would have been working as a psychiatrist for the army, let alone be deployed? The government is going to spin this so the public does not know how they really treat soldiers with PTSD. Many of us have written negatively about our government because we want changes and truth. That does not mean we are terrorists. It means we want  our country back. He supposedly wrote that suicide bombers are like a soldier jumping on a grenade to protect his fellow soldiers. I can see that in the minds of the suicide bombers they feel they are sacrificing themselves for others. When I think of those in other countries fighting against our invasion I think about what would happen if another country invaded the US. We would organize and start kicking their butts. Would we make bombs and blow them up? Hell yes. Why can't they understand people in other countries would do this?

We know PTSD gets worse and worse when the trauma is inflicted over a long period of time and it is the worst when there is an element of injustice involved, I can attest to that. How awful it would feel to be a pawn in a war. Take how you feel about a false war being waged in the name of America and magnify it 1000 times. It destroys soldiers to know their actions have harmed innocent civilians. Most of them are young, , naive and idealistic. When they realize the truth they find themselves trapped in a nightmare. I would imagine those of middle eastern descent would be even more affected.

The disorder can have lifetime impact, according to the National Center for PTSD: "The traumatic event remains, sometimes for decades or a lifetime, a dominating psychological experience that retains its power to evoke panic, terror, dread, grief or despair."

PTSD is a psychological trauma which when repeated over and over ends in violence, no matter the cause. Remember those who have been psychologically tortured are much harder to treat than those who are physically tortured. If it is from workplace bullying, violence, psychological abuse or war without proper intervention the end is the same. There will be violence either against themselves(suicide) or others (murder) or both. PTSD is epidemic in this country because we have a culture of bullying. Those with power are allowed to harm and use those who have no power(money=power). That causes damage. When you take away hope and joy from a person all that is left is anger and pain.

Psychiatrists have one of the highest suicides rates because they are reluctant to seek help when they have problems. They have to deal with huge amounts of pain day in and day out. They hear about horrible things. Imagine what a psychiatrist at an army base in a center designed to just tune up soldiers and send them back to war has to deal with. The anger of knowing these lives were all destroyed because of a ridiculous agenda and so someone could make millions of dollars compounds the problem. He probably got told to send really sick soldiers back into combat. He must have heard some horrifying stories about civilians being killed or tortured. I have a feeling the government will try to spin him into a monster. I will never believe it is true. He is most likely a tortured man who had a breakdown. Ask yourself this, why would a man who spent his life helping others deal with pain suddenly kill and injure a large number of people?

We still have not helped the vets from WWII, what would make anyone think they would be helping the PTSD afflicted vets now. My father has PTSD from WWII and still screams in his sleep. He fought the VA for his benefits until he finally got them in his 80s. They promised full medical coverage for the men who fought in WWII. It was a lie. The soldiers now are sent to Iraq or Afghanistan, come back damaged, are given some pills, told to buck it up, and sent back again. It is never the decision makers who have to pay the price for war.

I would imagine that there are many mental health professionals engaged in a battle with the powers that be in the military about the harm being done and are probably being threatened. They could be court marshalled or simply discharged. The beginning of that is poor evaluations and counseling which I know about having known people discharged from the military. It is a form of workplace bullying which is also used in nursing. We know the Christian dominionists are in the military and Christianity is pushed in the military. He was probably not treated very well.

The other thing that happens at a high rate with PTSD is chemical dependency. It is very difficult to sleep and the memories are hard to stop at night. Many self -medicate with drugs and alcohol. The cost of war is paid for in many different ways. The war in Afghanistan has put really cheap Heroin into the world market. The soldiers are buying it for about a dollar a day in the middle east. It also can be very difficult to hold down a job with untreated PTSD which is how so many vets end up homeless. PTSD is not something that can just be shook off, it causes permanent brain changes.

Mental health counseling can be very hard to come by. Many people with PTSD are just blown off or misdiagnosed. Medications do not work directly on PTSD, they help the depression and anxiety which comes with it, but counseling is the only treatment which has lasting results. The problem is for severe cases it takes years of counseling and costs a lot of money. The government does not want to pay for it nor take a soldier out of combat. We know at least one internal email was found telling staff at the VA to stop diagnosing PTSD.


http://www.adn.com/front/story/1001125.html?pageNum=2&mi_pluck_action=page_nav#Comments_Container


http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/05/texas.fort.hood.shootings/index.html

http://ap.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/32/1/8

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://whyfiles.org/176prison_psych/images/ptsd_table.gif&imgrefurl=http://whyfiles.org/176prison_psych/2.html&usg=__CZ54omalrGqAAIUcS_elhm9bqHQ=&h=302&w=422&sz=10&hl=en&start=14&tbnid=hbdvA4HG4mmIGM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=126&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dptsd%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My sincere "Thank You Ever So Much" for your well researched, and well thought through post.

Anonymous said...

Wow, thank you so much for this thoughtful, informative, articulate, and enlightened article. I came across it while searching around for info on John Galligan, Hasan's attorney. He is doing regular media interviews about how the government is behaving corruptly in prosecuting Hasan. It's very brave of him, since I know he's having to deal with a lot of stupid reactions like, "How dare you defend this jerk."

I am going to save this article to give to anyone needing some "enlightenment".

I recently came across a website that helps soldiers get out of the military. The website owner shows specifically how he got out and posts other success stories, too. It might help some of these PTSD sufferers from being sent back.
sovereignwarriors.com

I also just finished reading "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins. If you know someone who can't quite understand that our wars have nothing to do with freedom or self-defense, this book makes it easy for even the newbie to wrap their heads around it.

By the way everyone, whenever you say things like, "Thank you for your service to our country" or "Soldiers are heroes", you are telling children that soldiers are heroic and respectable. This encourages them to become one (because who doesn't want to be respected). Then they become another pawn to be mentally and physically damaged, maybe even killed, to carry out the will of the greedy elite. Please stop carrying out the govt's propaganda.