Fort Hood

All the world now knows of the tragic event that has happened in Fort Hood. The loss of life and the injuries inflicted cannot even begin to express the horror and shock that has swept over the country. There has been constant coverage from all media and constant speculation on how an officer of the Army could inflict such pain on his fellow soldiers and their families.

Blame and more speculation is flying around as to the cause, reason and rationale behind this, but the real picture is slowly coming clear

Major Hasan, contrary to was told, was a born Muslim. He was a mild mannered man, vouched for by family and friends. He was an Army psychologist at Walter Reed Hospital, and contrary again to what has been said, had not been deployed in recent years; but he had been hearing gut-wrenching storied from the boys that had been to Iraq and Afghanistan and the horrors of what these boys had been through in the wars which are still ongoing. All this was getting to him badly.

It seems, though I am not positive, that he had been asking for early retirement from the Army, even if he had to pay to get out, but bureaucracy, Army regulations and who knows what else, got in the way of his getting his release. Not only, to add insult to injury, he was transferred to Fort Hood and told that he would be deployed!

Now this Army Major was a devout Muslim who attended his mosque regularly. He was being deployed to fight against a Muslim people. Irrespective of why this war was on, that it was the West's genuine intention to bring peace and democracy to both Iraq and Afghanistan, in his mind he must have been very reluctant to fight people of his faith and of, unfortunately, his radical beliefs. Also, a fellow Muslim attendee of the same mosque, said that Major Hasan had asked him to find him a wife who wore the traditional Muslim headdress as well as who prayed five times a day. How could he have been considered good material to be deployed?

The Army MUST have known about the increasing unease of this Muslim Major, of his reluctance to be deployed and the real reason behind this reluctance. Why did they not give him the discharge he was requesting? In my mind, they should not only have discharged him but also given him an honorable discharge to be sure that no one could say that it was a case of ethnic bias.

Bias aside, in this day and age, when the whole Christian and Jewish world is in a deadly fight for the survival of western principles, mores and hard earned emancipation, against the fundamentalist extremists who want it otherwise, do you think that any of the US armed forces should keep amongst their ranks any soldier or officer whose religious mores are so much in direct contrast to the policies and politics of our Armed Forces and Government?

These times are not for pussy-footing around the risk of offending somebody's extremely touchy sensibilities! There is no place in today's Armed Forces for people whose sentiments and beliefs are in such radical contrast to what we believe in and to the politics and policies that were are now following.

There are many devout Muslims in the US who live as good citizens of the US and who are an example to all; but, the extreme element is lurking there and to ask and expect them to fight for principles that they do not believe in, is tantamount to extreme folly as was seen in the Fort Hood tragedy.

As always, we have to wait for some tragedy to happen before we take a close look at how we are handling each and every situation.

Life in Arizona, through the eyes of a European!

Let me start by saying that Arizona is the most original place I have ever seen. Besides the fact that the State has a Low Desert, Hot,hot, hot in Summer and gorgeous in Winter. Then there is the High Desert in the north mainly home to the Navajo and Hopi Nations where the summer is hot but the winter is pretty cold as the elevation is over 7000feet, hence the High Desert. In the middle are the towns and picturesque areas which enjoy a four season climate.
Being brought up speaking British English, I had a hard time understanding the American version and also being understood! Forget the "tomato/tomahto" standard joke, but listening to the various programs mainly political, I have had a struggle with quite a few "gems" For example, an "oversight" in B English is something which has been skipped over, missed or left out. In A English is is used as the past
participle for "overseeing" which has a totally different meaning. Another which bugs me greatly is the use of "momentarily" to mean 'in a moment" Momentarily is an Adverb which is used to govern a Verb and should be used close to a verb or to describe it. When someone say "I will be back momentarily, it should be "in a moment or in a short time. You can say" I will momentarily be absent " this is correct as the word "momentarily is telling me more about being absent. It is where you place the word in the construction of a sentence that gives correctness to the use of words.
Maybe, by now you might have guessed that I am a bit of a grammar freak, but I studied this subject for many years at school and it has really stuck.
So much for today!!