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Vulcan.
Was he disturbed after being educated as a psychiatrist at our expense all those years at Bethesda? Just crazy and he happened to be an MD about to be deployed?
Did taunts about his religion crack this trained and in service psychiatrist wide open like a school boy who is teased too many times?
Was this the same reaction some weak minded and weak souled Jewish doctor might have had over endless taunting that his antecedents killed the messiah?
We have to ask all the questions to KNOW. Was he a 'good american' as one friend put it?
Or does the army have no way, or is prevented from asking the questions which would filter out those whose loyalty to the ideals of their religion (or anything else) prevent them being effective defenders of the american people and way of life?
In the book Catch 22, Yossarian is upset because all the Germans are trying to kill him. He is scolded as being paranoid because the Germans were trying to kill everyone flying over them. Yossarian intelligently takes the discussion to the next level asking..'what difference does that make?'
If Dr. Hasan felt he had a higher duty then as Americans, part of whose job it is to ensure we pass to our children what we were handed, we have a very winding path to figure out. It will be compulsory to find an equitable way of getting these sons of bitches who are American but not. Who think the Quran demands they kill us as an individual responsibility. Who may be right about what that book says.
We have to ask the questions.
Someone impeccable who is asking himself the same questions inside his soul this morning needs to speak out and say 'if they are crazy, what difference does that make'?
"They shot me! And I'm still here in this country!" , said PFC Bono, to whom it clearly made no difference at all.
We owe it to ourselves, and to every American who happens to be Muslim to find out these answers and explore them honestly.
Maybe these individuals ARE crazy.
Does that make a difference?
1 comment:
"Does the army have no way, or is it prevented from asking the questions that would filter out those whose loyalty to the ideals of their religion (or anything else) prevent them being effective defenders of the American people and way of life?"
In researching this since yesterday I stumbled on this 2007 address by Martin Cook, the http://www.usafa.edu/isme/ISME07/Cook07.html
head of the philosophy dept. at the Air Force Academy. At the time, they were dealing with issues arising from aggressive Evangelical proselytizing. But read this piece with an eye to how it applies to the presence of "devout muslims" in the military and you may find some interesting parallels, especially near the end when he talks about the Christian Reconstructionist movement. If the military has trouble grappling with these people, how well are they going to fare with the Islamists?
Cook directly confronts the issue at the end in a conversation with a cadet who declared that specifically evangelizing, witnessing, was the "most important thing I need to do in my life." He suggested that this is not compatible with military service. The same standard should apply to muslims in the military.
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