re: #148 Dark_Falcon

My only reason for suggesting it was as a way to prevent more bloodshed. Killing this shithead would help quell Afghan anger and that would save lives. I fully appreciate the argument that that is not a shortcut we should take, that fundamental rights should not be abridged to end a crisis. It may well be the correct argument, but I also wanted to put in another view on this matter and see what people think of it.

Two reasons:

One, there’s a multi-layered problem with PTSD in the armed services, and this case raises a sizable question about how well the system in place copes with combat stress. How this guy had a breakdown yet could access the armory to do this, was he still on active duty, how long he’d been having issues…. We may have just learned some very ugly things about how too many tours and constant fear damage the mind.

Two, is this really a simple case of breakdown —> killing spree? TV psychology makes that idea intuitively feel “true,” but this kind of violence is fringe of the fringe. The antecedents to this tragedy need to be gone through with a fine-tooth comb. It would be tragic if experiences in wartime transformed this man, but it would be a different kind of bad if his decision to conduct a massacre was colored by ideology or a belief system. There’s been way too many reports about white nationalist and Dominionist recruitment in the military lately.