the rix mix

The United States Army knew Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was screwed up. Too screwed up to be a shrink, too screwed up to counsel soldiers, too screwed up to serve at Fort Hood, in Afghanistan, or anywhere. No doubt Muslims face prejudice in our armed forces. There are problems that go far deeper than what Muslims must experience, given the influence of evangelical protestantism on military life, throughout all ranks. It can tough to be a Jew or Catholic, or pagan or no preference in some units of the United States military. The Army has no excuse for Hasan. They kept this deeply disturbed man on active duty despite years of complaints & bad reports (& discharge patriotic homosexuals who speak Arabic). As this tragedy is investigated, we should expect a list of disciplinary actions against those responsible for pushing Hasan through the Army pipeline just because they needed more psychiatrists. Graduate students in social work at the state university up the street are put through more rigorously monitored examinations & internships than the Army apparently required of Hasan. Here's an opportunity to take the lid off & expose a whole bunch of festering problems.

Labels: in the news, religion