The private madness of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
Yesterday Maj Hasan flipped and finally pulled the trigger. The resulting toll was 30 injured and 13 dead at Fort Hood. The media is now hell bent on trying to understand the course of actions that led to his going to the other side. Current speculation has come up with little so far- a psychiatrist set to be redeployed in Afghanistan going over the edge, or maybe a psychiatrist who just took on all the collective madness of his patients (which makes for the most kind of perverse irony, and if we know one thing about life in America, it’s that it is always perverse and full of irony). That said, how are we suppose to make sense of this mass shooting?
The New York Times reports that ‘family members said he had previously complained about being harassed because he was a Muslim, and that he had expressed deep concerns about deploying.’
President Obama on the other hand, has urged the public not to come to any rash conclusions. However, Gawker reports- ‘that they learned that Nidal Hasan applied for and received a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Virginia in March 1996.’
Which kind of means (if we follow Gawker’s slant) that he was a man already toying with the idea of the other side.
In the end, it is a national tragedy and disgrace that has unfolded. Guns, violence and tragedy usually go hand in hand with perversity and irony not that we’d ever want you to try it…
Gawker
Ft. Hood Shooter Previously Had Concealed Handgun Permit New York Times Suspect Was to Be Sent to Afghanistan
