-DailyKos readers weigh in on the Fort Hood shootings

via Stop The ACLU:

Molotov: idiots. you teach people to kill without remorse, then act surprised when they do

primarydoc: and we have to consider the selective disclosure/spin from the military if it turns out that the reason for the shooting might undermine our “noble” wars, as in the case of Pat Tillman or Jessica Lynch

Alien Abductee: Maybe he’s just seen too much destruction of the mental health of his fellow soldiers and finally snapped himself.

olo: Maybe they just put the gun in his hand because be looks like a brown terror monger, is named Hasan (sounds & looks similar to Hussein) — and was the most convenient of the dozen bodies to blame this shit on.)

ferralike: It appears through the latest reporting on MSNBC that the shooter who was killed, Army Maj Malik Nadal Hasan, was possibly enraged about being shipped over to Iraq per Chris Matthews (at ~ 5:55 est). So it sounds as if the second possibility I raised was more correct. However, this guy could have already served multiple tours and this could still be a PTSD related incident. Who knows?

I actually feel for this guy if he was pushed to go this far that he flipped out and killed 12 and injured 31 (the number at this moment.) I hate that he did this and there are so many grieving and worried families but I doubt this was driven because he simply did not want to go over there on his first tour.

If this is true, this is indicative of a much larger disaster imminently waiting to happen for many, many other soldiers about to be deployed. We can’t keep this up sending these soldiers over time after time and expecting them to come back without being mentally and emotionally affected. This is very very tragic.

Julia Grey: I personally hope very much that he isn’t black. He’d be made out as an Obama confederate, part of the underground preparations for the coup, a guy who was so excited about destroying America that he started too early, yadda yadda. It’s already bad enough that he has an Arabic name.

Lying eyes: Good thing Bush is no longer in charge…. continued… True. But I was thinking if this guy has an Arabic name and is a muslim, Bush would use the tragedy to attack Iran. Or some convenient country.

MillieNeon: I just hope this doesn’t come with a huge Muslim backlash, or kick Muslims out of the military, etc.

How very say for the people who lost their lives, their families, for the moderate Muslim who already have so much difficulty in this country right now.

And my heart really goes out to all the soldiers with PTSD. They need much more support and treatment. It’s immoral to bring people back from war and leave them in psychological torture chambers.

Also, I think we should re-examine soldier training. They are taught to de-humanize the enemy so they can kill easier. How do you “undo” that? What are we doing to these poorsoldiers?

SantaFeMarie: Why is it “surely just coincidence” that people in Texas commit violent homicides?

The Navigator: Let’s all hope it’s not wingers or the radical right that did this, but rather just a few disturbed soldiers.

o the umanity: I still can’t figure out what happened. When I was a little girl, it was an honor to serve. My father and all my brothers did. So did my uncles and one of my grandfathers.

And then came ‘Nam, and it’s been all downhill since

-Malik Nadal Hasan murders twelve soldiers at Fort Hood, media ignores his name

From Fox News:

A military doctor who feared an impending war deployment is believed to be the gunman behind a shooting rampage Thursday afternoon at the Army's Fort Hood in Texas that killed 11 and wounded 31 before the gunman was fatally shot.

Two soldiers were taken into custoy [sic] as possible suspects, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone told reporters Thursday evening, though the pair later were released and it isn't clear whether they they were involved in the violence.

Authorities have not identified the gunman publicly, but official sources have named Major Malik Nadal Hasan, a psychiatrist who reportedly didn't believe in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and wanted out of the military before he was set to be deployed overseas.

And since you can't put it much more eloquently than they did, here is how the gentlemen at I Hate the Media evaluated the media situation:

We hear that a Major Malik Nadal Hasan has murdered, execution-style, twelve soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas. Political correctness be damned. To us, the shooter doesn’t sound Baptist, doesn’t sound Catholic, doesn’t sound Jewish, doesn’t sound Hindu, doesn’t sound Buddhist. What does that leave? We wonder. But, we do recall the story of the founder of the Muslim-American BridgesTV network that beheaded his wife in Buffalo, New York. His name? Muzzammil Hassan.

It should be very, very interesting to see how this plays out.


UPDATE: Previous reports on Hasan being killed at the scene are incorrect; he is in stable condition at a local hospital.

-Planned Parenthood director quits after watching an abortion ultrasound

via Hot Air:

After eight years working at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas, including two years as its director, Abby Johnson suddenly decided that she could no longer participate in abortions. What pushed Johnson out was both an ultrasound of an abortion and a renewed emphasis on the cash-generating business in the failing economy. After being told to deemphasize prevention and market for abortions, Johnson finally had enough:

From KTBX College Station:

According to Johnson, the non-profit was struggling under the weight of a tough economy, and changing it’s business model from one that pushed prevention, to one that focused on abortion.

“It seemed like maybe that’s not what a lot of people were believing any more because that’s not where the money was. The money wasn’t in family planning, the money wasn’t in prevention, the money was in abortion and so I had a problem with that,” said Johnson.

Johnson said she was told to bring in more women who wanted abortions, something the Episcopalian church goer recently became convicted about. …

Johnson now supports the Coalition For Life, the pro-life group with a building down the street from Planned Parenthood. Coalition volunteers can regularly be seen praying on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood. Johnson has been meeting with the coalition’s executive director, Shawn Carney, and has prayed with volunteers outside Planned Parenthood.