JR Salzman, an outstanding young man I met a couple of years back at a MilBlog conference, knows a thing or two about post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
And his opinion about Major Hasan, the murderer of 13 American soldiers whom the media is trying to spin into some class of victim?
(You) don’t get PTSD from sitting on your ass around Walter Reed. Not only is it not possible to “catch” secondhand PTSD, but it is not that kind of a place. I would know, I was a patient there for nine months. The place is simply not that stressful or chaotic. When I was there my PTSD got better, not worse. And I would be willing to bet my dog tags that I saw far more wounded Soldiers than shit bag major did during our overlapping time there in 2007. I regularly visited Ward 57 to give advice to the new wounded. Other Soldiers and amputees did it for me when I was there so I considered my visits “paying it forward”. I had daily physical and occupational therapy. I regularly partook in activities in and out of Walter Reed with present and past wounded Soldiers. To say that this guy got PTSD from being stationed at Walter Reed is an absolute fucking farce. The people who are making this shit up have never set foot on Walter Reed, let alone met a soldier with PTSD.
Preach it, brother.
Yup… nice to see him stating the obvious. Would that our MSM might take notice and follow suit.
That, however, would require them to use honest enquiry and objective reporting, something that seems a genetic impossibility for them.
Yea verily and Amen.
I somehow managed to turn off my radio without destroying it this morning when NPR decided that an antiwar former PFC was the only appropriate source to consult about Ft. Hood. He, of course, made the murderer into a victim, claiming he developed PTSD from listening to accounts of combat. They never mentioned that Hasan was reprimanded for telling soldiers sent to him for counseling that they were war criminals, or any of the other mountain of red flags.
I’ve never served, so my outrage must be a shadow of that felt by people who’ve borne the cost of the war. The effort to propagate this meme making Hasan the victim is nothing less than obscene.
Yep, the shrinks never lack the ability to invent new mental illnesses. The one is PRE Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Reminds me of a SNL skit where Phil Hartman was an Atty soliciting for clients who had been stressed by having WITNESSED an accident and who were therefore injured and should be compensated.
I’m going to take the liberty of quoting a commenter from Althouse.com in the thread apply named ‘Working the combat stress without combat’ article, because I think the poster won’t mind if his highly insightful thoughts are spread around a bit:
[quote]
The Drill SGT said…
Let’s talk seriously about PTSD for a bit.
who gets it: In my experience, it’s line dogs. the grunts for the most part, though in Iraq, I expect the convoy guys would pick it up as well.
What does it look like: I’m not an expert, but I had a small case when I came home from Vietnam I guess. In my experience it manifests as a certain level of anxiety about behavior that would be risky in combat. examples:
– overreaction to loud noises (e.g incoming…)
– anxiety is close quarters or crowds
– false identification of IED threats and avoidance of same while driving
– snapping awake at night at noises, wondering who is pulling security in your apartment… not being able to fall asleep for days, till you crash.
all of my experiences with PSTD were defensive. None of those things caused me to attack others. all of the reactions were of the instinctive type, often while asleep or otherwise impaired. All went away upon waking or consideration of the real local environment.
In short, PSTD is survival skills gone wild.
the NYT and these so called experts are full of shit. You can’t catch PTSD from somebody, or from hearing ugly stories. You have to live the threat environment. If PSTD was a disease, then all the Physical Therapists Walter Reed and the burn ward nurses at Brook would be in padded cells by now.
[/quote]
” In short, PSTD is survival skills gone wild”. Very important concept! PSTD does not make one into a Hollywood style manic. It makes one more defensive and cautious.
So, since I’ve watched “Apocolypse Now”, “Full Metal Jacket”, “Hamburger Hill”, “Saving Private Ryan”, I should now have full blown PTSD. And on the side, I once watched “Fort Apache”. I should be attacking the reservation any day now.
PTSD, my ass! I sincerely doubt he had a PTSD problem.
Says in the UL Telegraph:
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 at America’s Fort Hood military base, once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.
Looks like a mere jihadist that had his kill switch turned on.
Between JR, Cassandra, and the Drill Sgt quoted by Jim Howard above, I’d say the truth of the matter has been well covered. Saw a comment I liked today: “I’m suffering from stupid media syndrome. Does that make me a victim?”
The left and the MSM will not, indeed cannot, give up on the PSTD theme, otherwise the entire edifice of their Weltanschauung of “evil America” and of multi-culti “noble savage” non-whites will be shredded. They will defend this world-view to the bitter end. To admit otherwise would mean admitting their entire lives has been lived as a lie. This they cannot do or their heads would explode. They will say absolutely anything no matter how factually ridiculous, and ignore any evidence not in support of their position, no matter how factually unassailable. They cannot do otherwise. Do not wait for Darwinian evolutionary change from these people–it ain’t happening.
And the command structure of our armed services is now so thoroughly drenched/brainwashed/inculted in multi-culti PC idiocy and having based their entire careers on advancing these concepts–indeed have risen in rank EXACTLY because of their devotion and fealty to these concepts, that they will white-wash everything whistling past the grave-yard all the way.
Sickening, absolutely sickening. How anyone could sit still and watch the Chief of Staff of the Army
on the Sunday talk shows speak NOTHING but bureaucratic -nonspeak/double-speak like the best of the worst bureaucratic weasels was almost more than I could stomach. Were that man under me in my command I would do everything in my power to end his career. But the proof is in the pudding, isn’t it? The system rewards diplomatic weasels. The Vinigar Joe Stillwells, Curt LeMays and Admiral Kings of this world need not apply….ever….not in this man’s Army.
I see claudio anticipated my comments about the Army chief of Staff with his post at “Weak Dick.”
Boy I wish that review mode was back, I still have two glaring mis-spellings: “inculcated” and “has” where I meant “have.”
Kinda like it when other people, especially one of the Most Esteemed People, ); , also do it, as it helps me rationalize my posts that contain spelling or grammatical “personalizations”.
Would like the review function again, though not at the cost of blog reliability and increased maintenance on the part of the host.
OT, but from the dim recesses of my memory, meaning I probably heard or read about it yesterday, I thought that today is Lex’s birthday. Better minds would know.
It is Lex’s b-day today…
I’m torn between awe, anger and fear. Awe because the ability of the MSM and certain portions of public opinion to tie itself up in knots to avoid admitting that Maj. Hassan’s mass murder was motivated by his faith is in a way marvelous – living in a Poland whose politics were dominated by the same kind of make-believe/wish upon a (red) star magical thinking (before those politics crashed utterly) one knows that not only will such flight from reality end badly but that the crash will be spectacularly interesting and instructive.
There is anger however, because such make-believe politics only work by censorship (self- and other), lies and a deep callousness that easily compares and attempts to narrow the gap between the heroics like those of our soldiers who get PTSD the old fashioned way (by actually, you know, suffering in a cause that is good and right) and a Maj. Hassan, who wanted to “do something beautiful for God” (according to the WaPo article on http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/07/AR2009110703449.html )
And of course the fear is a familiar thing – the same crowd on the left that had found its inner appeaser by the end of the Cold War is now back in old form, trying to justify the unjustifiable even as our enemy becomes ever more grotesque. As much as I disagree with 70-85% of what most on the left believe, as an American I need them not to be stuck on stupid in ways that could hurt the country even more badly than the death and wounding of over 40 American soldiers. Which means that the grown ups among us have to work harder to contain our fury over their stupidity precisely because we are the only reality based community around – and if we allow our ability to analyze to get clouded by partisan anger (even when it is highly justified)then we are all sunk.
So we are in something of a race – can we keep our heads while others are losing theirs and blaming it on us? I say yes, because I think the bedrock decency and generosity of Americans like JR Salzman and those who continue to love him and strive for his healing is so much greater than the self-deluding, sterile lies and distortions of those whose intellectual corruption leads them to try to turn Maj. Hassans crime into a “tragedy” (and later into, what, a chance for “understanding”? though it will be hard to have a beer summit with our enemies). But winning this struggle at home (and abroad) is going to require the best we have – our best insights, the discipline to contain and use righteous anger wisely, and a charity that works toward the conversion of our opponents when possible. We simply must let their worst call out our best.
The polictically correct, multi-cultural correct-speak is truly a thing to behold! Just as so many have commented here that one cannot contract PTSD second hand, you can obviously catch the PC party line by hearing from other people.
It is truly disgusting, just as this video of good ole’ Dr. Phil and another apologist on Larry King attack a JAG officer. Before we know it, Hasan won’t really have been there at all, “nothing worth seeing here, move along”, will be the party line. So, if you cannot take one more viewing of people not jumping to conclusions, as Obama asked, don’t hit this hot-link. If you want to laugh at them or cry about how far the world around us has sunk, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0taqHv5u11I
Wow. Blood pressure spike here…
To think President Bush was criticized for “failure to connect the dots”!
The MSM reaction to this is entirely expected. The reaction of the Army Chief of Staff is shocking–political correctness is an infection that has been allowed to spread. Previously, it has tended to shorten careers. Now it has killed.
It would help mightily if the rest of the 3000 Army Muslims would stand up and disown Major Hasan, wave American flags and re-swear their allegiance to support and defend the Constitution.
ManlyDad, I fully agree with your comment! Stand up, say that you are an American, and that you disown the Muslim Traitor.
Too many Muslim and Muslim groups bewail that they are being wronged by an act committed by an individual, an organization, a spokesperson, …. (usually crocodile tears IMO).
Fine, stand up as a group and formally disown the traitorous bas**rds and all who support, defend or apologize for the bas**rds. Cannot do that? Then get the hell out of America, because you are not Americans.
But…as usual…crickets chirping without interruption. I see a many year pattern here. Long ago, several big name talk show hosts asked the “moderate Muslims” to call in, to stand up, to declare this as a problem…still hasn’t happened, still isn’t happening.
As one pastor from India who visited explained: To Muslim, there is not “a Muslim culture,” A “Muslim Religion” and a “Muslim Government,” it’s all one thing, and therefore, your entire western “compartmentaliszing” view of this won’t work.
Not to say they are all on this path, but that scary thing is the ones who are not are, by my best observation, afraid to speak up. That, in and of itself, communicates where the power is. After all, someone made a movie about women being oppressed and he ended up stabbed to death in the streets.
I wonder if this guy actually got and sustained his position as some sort of Army “diversity-think” program. Hard to imagine how he would otherwise have actually passed even the most rudimentary screening.
Ron
Hit CDR Sal’s site and listen to “Duane”- a muslim near Ft Hood. You won’t hear any muslim community outpouring of support for the wounded and dead. nope. And this “wonderfully devout muslim” was apparently frequenting the strip joints outside the main gate. Hmmm, looking for a nice devout muslim women that prays 5 times a day he was. Is it just me or do you really think he’d find her in Madame Fifi’s Boom Boom Room? The idea of even applying PTSD to this POS denigrates all the others that have “been there/done that” and suffered the consequences.
Hey Lex, a bit off topic (If only we somewhere WE could post…) but does realizing what today is give you PTSD?
Happy Birthday my brother.
Nose
Nah! But, it does bring it on with increasing intensity as you age after 50. That’s why VX is such friends with Mr. Barbancourt.
It is amazing to watch how hard the MSM is working to NOT call this what it is – a case of Islamic terrorism on our own soil. Period.
No other coating they put on this will take away from that fact.
Jihad Watch has a dozen or so posts that everyone should read.
Also Pamela is all over this.
She shows a business card that the shooter had that he was giving out. It proclaims that he is a “Soldier of Allah”.