The Fort Hood Tragedy: Suspected a Religious “Individual War”

The U.S. army base in Fort Hood, Texas has just released a list of 13 victims of the November 5th shooting. The fatal incident was carried out by a major, and resulted in 13 deaths and 30 wounded. The gunman, Fort Hood army base psychiatrist Malik Nadal Hasan, was shot down, and is still in the hospital receiving treatment.

The similarity between this shooting and past terrorist attacks is that both seem to have been carried out without consideration of the consequences. In this sense, they are labelled “suicidal.” Hasan is still recuperating, but one can imagine the trials and punishment that are awaiting him. President Obama called the incident a “criminal act aimed at a country.” Although the likelihood of a death penalty sentence is low, the length of imprisonment is expected to be extensive. Hasan’s act amounted to giving up his own life.

Hasan’s shooting is shocking and people are searching for motives. As an army psychiatrist, Hasan treated soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with serious psychological problems. Investigators believe that this kind of intense work exacerbated an existing psychological disorder. Providing emotional counseling to soldiers seemed to deepen his resentment and extremist views. When Hasan discovered that he was scheduled for deployment to Afghanistan, a war he strongly opposed, he could no longer contain his anger. Hasan’s cousin told the New York Times that Hasan was “insulted” by his deployment. Hasan even tried to extricate himself from it to no avail.

As far back as July 2005, after the terrorist attacks in London, England, people began to pay more attention to the social environments and emotional stability of Muslim immigrants who emigrated to western societies. Hasan’s parents came from Palestine, but he was born in Virginia. Many people quickly assumed Hasan to be an eccentric individual with a psychological disorder. Many right-wing Americans seemed to pay more attention to his religious identity, particularly the fact that he wore a long white gown and shouted “Allahu Akbar” before pulling the trigger. Although Hasan’s mental state seemed to be the immediate cause, deeper social conditions may also be to blame.

When we inspect the social elements of abnormal individual acts, we should review “Suicide Theory” by Ergan Tu. In the book, Ergan Tu claims that suicide has little or no connection with individual characteristics, heredity or environmental changes. Tu believes suicide has a close association with aspects of the social environment, such as economic or political crises, civic unrest, governmental reform, job changes and personal life transitions. Hasan’s extreme act seemed to have been caused by his exasperation with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and their devastating social effects.

Ergan Tu also offers some advice for preventing such extreme acts. He claims that one reason for suicide is that most societies have no effective system for enabling immigrants to successfully integrate into their new culture, without assimilating completely. He believes societies must allow these immigrant groups to keep their individuality within their new communities so that life remains meaningful for them. However, the “society” in Hasan’s case is a political organization – the U.S. army, which is much less personal and more complex than a civic community.

Although Hasan served this political organization, the overall goals of the army and the series of wars launched by the U.S. government were of no relevance to him. Combined with mental anguish, these conditions propelled him to leave the army and liberate himself from this “society.” Unfortunately, during the course of his personal liberation and fit of rage, he killed many other people.

It is unfortunate that, so far, we haven’t found an effective method to prevent this type of suicidal act. Moreover, in the U.S. army, the suicide rate has been increasing. Statistical figures show that since the Iraq war broke out in 2003, the number of soldiers who have killed themselves at the Fort Hood base has increased substantially. As of July this year, there have been 75 soldier suicides.

Unless the wars stop, a solution will not be possible. After 9/11, the conflict between the U.S. and Middle Eastern extremists has increased. The wars have widened the gap and exacerbated the hatred between these two cultures and societies. This hatred is not only expressed through traditional warfare and weaponry, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, but is also evident in American domestic policies. As of April 2002, the U.S. Department of Justice required immigrants from Arabic and Muslim countries between the ages of 16 and 25 to register with the Department of Immigration. Between then and 2003, 82,000 Muslim immigrants living in the U.S. voluntarily registered. At that time, the Department of Immigration firmly believed that 13,000 people were illegal immigrants and should be deported. It was the largest expulsion of Muslim immigrants in recent years. Whether they did or did not have the desire to integrate into that society, they were rejected.

It has been said that wars cannot end simply because of deaths or injuries, or even if they drive a person to commit acts of incomprehensible violence. Perhaps such violence is the mark of this era.