Schieffer on the Hasan SNAFU

CBS News ^ | 11/8/2009 | Bob Schieffer

[Saije]

The President has asked the nation not to jump to conclusions about what happened at Fort Hood, which is usually good advice, but it is also what government officials generally say when the government fouls up.

Good advice or not, I am jumping to an obvious conclusion: This should not have happened. That doctor should not have been at Fort Hood.

I don't care how hard-up the Army is for mental health professionals - a government psychiatrist with bad performance ratings who had been trying to get out of the Army and who had been saying what Dr. Hasan had been saying about the war on terrorism, should not have been shipped off to Fort Hood to give grief counseling.

What do you suppose he was telling the soldiers, that after what they had done they OUGHT to feel bad?

Certainly, no officer with his record would have been allowed to lead soldiers into combat.

Sadly, this shows that the Army still does not take protecting soldiers' mental health as seriously as it does training them to shoot.

And then there is the other part that often happens in government: Don't deal with a problem, shuffle it off to somewhere else. When he had problems at Walter Reed Hospital, the doctor was just packed off to Fort Hood.

Investigators confirm now that someone by his name had been posting messages on the Internet about how suicide bombers are as heroic as American soldiers who fall on grenades to save their comrades.

But the investigators say it is not clear if Dr. Hasan actually wrote those messages.

Based on what we know so far, my question is, do you suppose anyone has even asked him?

[milagro]

I agree with you. I am amazed that this was written by Schieffer!

[uncommonsense]

"No, Bob. It shows that the Army was afraid of PC blowback."

It's only going to get worse with Hussein in office. E.G. "I don't have any of the facts, but clearly the officers acted stupidly". Now we not only have to give up jobs to less qualified people, not focus attention on high probability security targets, but we have to sit back and watch a terrorist develop their jihad, then execute innocent bystanders doing their jobs helping America - before he's taken down.

At least someone at CBS said something fairly rational and critical about the highly negligent lack of action.

[Spok]

“Sadly, this shows that the Army still does not take protecting soldiers’ mental health as seriously as it does training them to shoot.”

This is another example of the military choking on the political correctness being shoved down the throats of our military by leftist politicians that can’t tell the Medal of Honor from a fraternity pin. My son is a Marine and believe me, they don’t like it any more than we do.

[Windflier]

Considering that Schieffer is an absolutely reliable MSM insider to the Nth degree, this could be significant.

Agree. I was going to post the same thought, but knew that someone here would spot the source and see the significance.

[Steve_Seattle]

Like the proverbial broken clock, Schieffer occasionally gives the correct time.

[norwaypinesavage]

"it is not clear if Dr. Hasan actually wrote those messages. Based on what we know so far, my question is, do you suppose anyone has even asked him?"

Typical ignorant legacy media 'reporter'. It is easy to Monday morning quarterback news events. The question for a REAL reporter should be: "Did anyone in the military know about this before the shootings"? I doubt that the military has the resources to follow every quote on every militant Islamic web site, and then cross check radical quotes with names of military personnel (assuming they don't use fake names). Schieffer, you're ignorant.