great. my son, a soldier, is sure this is terrorism.

[Mari333]

he says he knows things on the inside that I have no access to.
Hes not a teabagger, but he keeps insisting 'dont believe the news, mom.'
he says he has heard other things that arent allowed to be talked about.
I told him I loved him but I think hes believing a lot of scuttlebutt.

[Bonobo]

1. If there was more than one person involved, he's almost surely correct. nt

[Mari333]

4. well, I need more information.

so far, I have not had enough to satisfy me.

[Bitwit1234]

36. From what cable news are all reporting

with the people they are interviewing it was terrorism on this one guys part. They say it wasn't a conspiracy it was just this guy upset about the Americans and Muslim situation.

[Chemisse]

5. I heard on Chris Matthews that they let the other 2 go

Which suggests this guy was acting alone, so more likely somebody who cracked (I hope!).

[Bonobo]

22. That's a relief at least. nt

[Chemisse]

34. Yeah it really is a relief.

Although Dick Cheney is probably bitterly disappointed it is not an organized terrorist attack that he - of course - would have prevented.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. What would its objective be?

[Capn Sunshine]

38. terror?

among the military , and their families.

[FiveGoodMen]

44. Which would lead them to all give up and quit?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

3. Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't

A lot of people on both sides want to rush to judgement.

[Xenotime]

So sorry to hear that. They feed him a lot of bad stuff in the military.

[nc4bo]

6. Who knows, lots of things only those on the inside are privy to..

Sometimes the leaks are accurate, sometimes not.

They'll investigate and they may or may not tell the whole truth. Let's wait and see.

[Mari333]

7. exactly. wait and see.

[hlthe2b]

8. Sounds like he is buying into the testosterone-driven bravada

that seems to follow these incidents within the military grapevine. No offense, but that is my opinion...

[Barack_America]

13. .

Good point.

[Mari333]

18. I think so too.

the gossip must be flowing hard.
I told him, well, son, if this is a terrorist act, we are terrorizing other people in their countries right now, so we keep bringing this shit on ourselves.

[Brooklyns_Finest]

47. That is a really fucked up thing to say

To him at this time. His buddies get shot up and you tell him it is their fault.

When I deployed to Iraq, my mom told me to stay safe and shoot anything that shoots at me.

[Mari333]

51. excuse me, but he agreed with me

and I never said his buddies brought it on . I said the POLICIES THAT THE usa IMPLEMENTS IN OTHER COUNTRIES PUTS OUR SOLDIERS AT RISK..HERE AND ABROAD. MANY SOLDIERS AGREE WITH THAT. SO DOES HE.
NOW , get it? okay?

[WildEyedLiberal]

48. Wow, that's a really shitty thing to say

I guess if your son in the Army gets killed by a hypothetical terrorist, he brought it on himself, huh?

I bet that phone call was a real source of comfort to him. Jesus fucking Christ, way to make a political point at the expense of your son and his comrades' lives.

[Mari333]

50. oh stop. he and I always discuss this and he agreed with me

he thinks its awful what happens in wars and its awful what we do in wars. He agrees that the wars are a mistake. He also agrees that our policies create blowback on us. Geezus f christ, thats what a LOT of soldiers think of Bush;s decisions.
dont blow a gasket. NO one thinks what happened yesterday was acceptable, but if it was a terrorist act, our policies in those 2 fucking wars arent helping us win hearts and minds of anyone.

[MissB]

9. The first few hours after an incident like this are always chaotic.

About all you could say is that it will likely be days before we know what happened but that you have confidence that the military will get to the bottom of this. Remind him about balloon boy.

[Shell Beau]

10. Well it is terrorism in the sense that this guy caused a whole lot of terror.

[FiveGoodMen]

17. Random violence causes terror

But terrorism is about scaring people in order to get something.

Release of political prisoners; changes in law; changes in leadership; ... some kind of capitulation.

What was the objective supposed to be here?

[Shell Beau]

21. I don't know. Maybe nothing, we will have to see what turns up.

[FiveGoodMen]

24. Yeah, I get that.

My point was: Why are people jumping to that conclusion?

It rather seems like any act of violence by a middle-eastern person is just considered terrorism.

[Shell Beau]

32. Racism at its finest.

[seabeyond]

11. a simple, "we will see", suffices. nt

[ShortnFiery]

12. The other suspects were released. The man was off-balanced emotionally.

Mental illness does not discriminate via intelligence nor rank. :(

[bluestateguy]

14. When somebody claims to have "secret" evidence your bullshit detector should go off

Usually they are just try to make themselves sound important.

[Shell Beau]

15. Yeah, except for it is her son.

[Mari333]

20. thats okay hes my son and hes around a bunch of army guys all day

I expect he will occassionally say guy things. I will set him straight. :)

[SoCalDem]

16. My 2 cents.. The guy was from Virginia, had a cushy DC job at Walter Reed

..got some bad reviews, and NO promotions until a few months ago (he came IN as a captain)...and then gets sent to TEXAS (probably not a fun place to be with a Muslim name)..headed for Iraq.

He was PISSED OFF, and decided to stage an "accompanied-suicide"

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

19. Could it be that we will never really know?

Unless this guy kept a diary or closely confided in others, could it be that we will never have a definitive answer here? It could be a personal religious Jihad on his part but, more likely in my opinion, simply a man who went out of control with rage over the war. Maybe he listened to the stories of returning vets about killing children or innocent bystanders accidentally and finally went berserk.

[HipChick]

23. FBI are now claiming he had come to their attention due to some internet postings about suicide bomb

[Mari333]

27. gotta link?

I would love to see that

[HipChick]

31. KO mentioned the one reference to it in passing on his show...

[NYC_SKP]

25. Nidal Malik Hasan was born here, attended Virginia Tech, was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33695256/ns/us_news-military/

Virginia Tech ROTC

[stray cat]

26. Mass murder of people generally is terrorism of some sort - unless you just eat your victims

out of hunger. Mass murder of a targeted group of people generally innocent killed randomly to make a point - ie terrorism

[tekisui]

29. You have it wrong. Mass murders are usually large criminal acts.

They are not acts terrorism. Mass murders should be dealt with as criminal acts. There is a danger in slapping the label terrorism on criminal activity.

[stray cat]

28. Killing a doctor who performs abortions is terrorism - how is this unlikely to be?

[tekisui]

30. Killing the doctor was politically motivated.

We don't know the motivation in this.

[notadmblnd]

33. I don't think it's terrorism

I think he got fed up and being deployed was what st him off.

[tabatha]

35. He tried his best to get out of the military - even hired a lawyer.

He did not want to go to Iraq - and there was not way out other than him committing suicide.
Unfortunately, he took others with him.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

39. It would be interesting to hear from that lawyer

I assume he can speak now and that the attorney-client privilege no longer applies.

[Obamanaut]

37. Well, depends on what the definition of is is. If 'terrorism' is the use

of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, then by closing down a base that size, getting local law enforcement and the FBI involved, causing tremors throughout the blogosphere, possibly inciting fringe groups to do strange acts, becoming the main topic on all the news outlets - yeah, I think your son might be on to something.

[Lagomorph]

40. They infiltrate the government in Afghanistan...

they can do it here. It may take years to put together an operation, but they've been doing this for centuries.

[Lagomorph]

41. dupe

dupeage, Mozilla hung up....again....

[johnnie]

42. It seems to me he was pissed about deployment

He was against both wars they say.

On the other hand I would not be surprised if there is more to this and I would not be surprised if we never know.

[Shell Beau]

43. Something surely set him off.

:hi: How are ya?

[johnnie]

46. Pretty good Shell

:hi:

Now they say they have the gunman. See...don't believe everything you hear..lol

[nc4bo]

45. I don' t know Mari333, your son "may" be onto something....

just speculating of course.

The story has changed.

[Mari333]

49. he said he heard and saw things at the armory that he cant tell me about

on secure websites. I dont know anymore. He worries me sometimes, and I cannot wait til he gets OUT of the guard in January. I intend to throw a party . I was so proud of him in 1999 when he joined the guard, but that changed with BUSH, didnt it.
who knows whats going on . I will know more in days to come.