Re: ‘Seven shot dead’ at US army base
You know, he was born and educated in US, his family is originally Palestinian, and he joined up fresh out of high school. If he’s 39, that means over 20 years ago. Let’s see…1989…a different world for Muslims then, wasn’t it? Nobody knew anything about Muslims back then – just oil and Ayrabs. He was apparently against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but there he is, in the military, no way out.
When kids join the military, they don’t seem to realize that from then on, they pretty much have no right to refuse. He may have believed in all the military hype before, but watching the effects of these new wars must have got to him. I think listening to trauma traumatizes the listener, too. And then after 9/11, I bet the anti-Muslim harassment got pretty bad. And a Muslim would have to be twice a good/innocent to be accepted at face value. That’s hard. Not everyone is up for that. I wouldn’t be.
Which is not to excuse him in anyway. Only to try to understand why in order to see future mental implosions in time to head them off.
At least he wasn’t Pakistani…