Fort Hood Shooting: The Sequel.

Yesterday (2/4/14) a mass shooting took place at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas, US.

Fort Hood was of course the scene of another mass shooting back in 2009 when Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan shot and killed 13 people and injured more then 30 others. At his subsequent trial Hasan argued that his Muslim faith made it necessary for him to carry out the shooting in order to protect people in Iraq and Afghanistan by preventing US troops being deployed there. Quite reasonably the Court disagreed with Hasan and he was convicted and sentenced to death in August 2013.

This latest shooting incident seems much smaller in scale with three people being killed and 16 injured before the gunman turned his gun on himself. Although details are still emerging that gunman has been identified as Ivan Lopez a 34 year year old Army specialist who served one tour of duty in Iraq and is suspected of suffering from an anxiety/depressive disorder likely to be Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The links with the military and PTSD mean that the main element of this incident is the US' involvement in both Iraq and Afghanistan which is scheduled to come to an end at the end of 2014. The big problem that has been faced by militaries engaged in both Iraq and Afghanistan is that they are both asymmetric warzones. In traditional wars where there is a clear line of symmetry between the opposing forces troops would often only spend a maximum of two weeks on that front line before being rotated out to a safer area where they could rest and recover. In Iraq and Afghanistan it has not been possible to do that meaning that while the actual fighting is far less intense the psychological effect is far more intense with troops spending every day of their tours of duty not knowing whether they're going to be attacked.

A large proportion of US troops have been forced to serve 18 month long tours and as a result the majority are returning with some form of psychological damage - most typically PTSD. In fact I think the number of US service personnel dying by suicide after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan far exceeds the number killed by enemy action. Added to that the use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's) and improvements in combat medicine mean that while the death-toll from what has been 13 year conflict is actually very low the number of wounded suffering life changing injuries such as lost limbs and traumatic brain injuries has been very high.

Having all these veterans alive to show off their injuries and tell their stories has been a key factor in chipping away at American public support for the conflicts. It is this lack of support for the wars that is the main driving force behind US President Obama's desire to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan at any cost in order to prevent those conflicts affecting his own electoral chances and the chances of his Democrat Party. The decision to withdraw from Iraq came too soon and has been a disaster with large sections of the west of the country falling into the hands of Islamist terrorists. The withdrawal from Afghanistan also looks to be coming far too soon and seems set to become an even bigger disaster.

Although slim US hopes of success rest of the Afghan government signing up to the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) which would allow a small deployment of US troops (mainly Special Forces) to remain after the main withdrawal. So far the Afghan government has not signed up to the BSA but the US is working under the assumption this is simply a ploy to garner support ahead of Afghan national elections. Those elections take place this coming weekend so we will shortly find out if the US has guessed correctly.

Beyond that rather big issue research into mental health problems - particularly PTSD - has been one of the main driving forces behind the US and the UK's treatment of me over the last seven years now. After all I end up suffering from mild forms of PTSD every time there's an Olympics, a COP Summit or Rihanna goes on tour. For example I'm currently considering re-reading and archiving everything I wrote during the recent Winter Olympics because although I wrote it I can't seem to remember a thing that happened. That is a classic symptom of PTSD. The fact that research project was supposed to end in 2012 and it is now 2014 means that certain people might want to reconsider their approach.

In the context that I am the shooter who is suffering from PTSD this latest Fort Hood shooting starts to look like a metaphor for the US' Rihanna operation. Whether or not you choose to blame me after a series of reviews including a very large one at the Winter Olympics it must be clear to all that the Rihanna operation has failed and all involved are either dead or seriously injured. As such the US seems to be positioning itself to make it appear as though they are considering cancelling the operation. However the fact they are speculating rather then acting is in itself a pretty clear indication that they intend to continue until Rihanna lifts a finger to save herself.

14:40 on 3/4/14 (UK date).