Four more casualties of the Iraq War and the NRA perished at Fort Hood yesterday
by David Atkins
It’s looking like the Fort Hood shooter yesterday was an Iraq War vet suffering from PTSD:
Milley said the suspected guman served in Iraq in 2011, was married and was being evaluated for a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis. He used a .45 caliber Smith and Wesson that was purchased recently, Milley said.
There was no motive identified, and Milley said there was no indication that the incident was related to terrorism, though it hasn’t been ruled out. Federal and state authorities are investigating the attack.
We don’t know all the details yet, but if these details are true here’s what we can say:
1) The immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq is directly responsible for these deaths. Soldiers returning with PTSD is an almost inevitable consequence of the decision to go to war with ground forces. Some soldiers with PTSD will commit violence acts on their return home. Any decision to go to war must bear that in mind, and victims of soldiers with PTSD must be considered domestic casualties of that war.
2) A man known to have PTSD was apparently legally allowed to purchase a handheld firearm. Because this is America, where allowing the mentally ill to buy death machines is defended tooth and nail by politicians corrupted by the NRA’s blood money.
3) There apparently aren’t enough “good guys with guns” to stop a “bad guy with a gun” even on a military base. If, that is, you consider a suicidal vet with PTSD a “bad guy” rather than another victim.
4) There were, as so often happens in these cases, reports of a second shooter who actually turned out to be a responder. So I suppose we can all be grateful that the people who reported the second gunman weren’t trigger-happy “good guys with guns” or even more people would have been killed.
So yes, the shooting was a tragedy. But the responsibility for it lies squarely on the shoulders of the villains who lied this country and this soldier into a needless war, and the gun nut organizations that continue to allow the mentally disturbed to legally own firearms.
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