Everyone one avoids the obvious and that is he was an instant jihadist. Human behavior is complex which is to say there are a web of variables responsible for some act. However, we deal with what we can control. And the evidence is piling up that this guy had jihadist idealogy and should have been terminated but PC and the kind of nonsense written here is what is responsible for this tradegy.

Everyone avoids the obvious, that this guy was a nutjob.

Should we also profile every single depressed, lonely teenager? How about every cult leader? How about every housewife who drinks a bit too much?

We have plenty of evidence he was a jihadi. We have no evidence he was psychotic. Yet you believe the latter. No, murder is not evidence of psychosis.

pfire:

Everyone avoids the obvious, that this guy was a nutjob.

Should we also profile every single depressed, lonely teenager? How about every cult leader? How about every housewife who drinks a bit too much?

Actually, the real nutjob is you. You suffer from acute cognitive dissonance, with a side disorder of political correctness.

Jihad is flowering around you, and yet you struggle mightily to do your best not to see it, because doing so would collapse your carefully constructed worldview.

You can take consolation in the knowledge that there are many others who share your illness.

Actually, there's more evidence he was a nutjob than a jihadist. He was socially isolated, couldn't establish connections. He wasn't married because he had too many restrictions--serious sign of something out of whack. There were a number of warning signs, but no one followed up on them. He wanted to get out of the military, but they wouldn't let him. Why? They are seriously understaffed, particularly in the area of medical and psychological personnel. This is our "all-volunteer" army. Maybe if they brought back the draft, it would be easier to get rid of those who were clearly unfit to serve.

@MP -- oh, yeah, totally. Flowering. 2 women drive drunk in NY and kill a total of 15 kids. A rapist in Ohio kills 6 women and buries them in his house. A Virginia Tech student kills 32 people. A man in Orlando kills 6 in an office building. But it's the jihadists we shoud worry about, the countries crawling with then right now.

pfire:

Actually, there's more evidence he was a nutjob than a jihadist.

Possibly true, but beside the point. Many jihadists could be labeled mad from our perspective. If he had been a Christian fundamentalist, most of the MSM would have touted it far and wide as prima facie proof of spreading Christian terrorism. It remains true that Islam is the only religion that can get a free pass about its many adherents who will won't hesitate to kill for their faith.

So now you're advocating the draft to cut back on dissent and military violence? Thanks for proving my point about the delusional logic of the PC crowd.

@jobmd--I'm advocating a draft because it would the quickest way to get us out of both wars. Plus, it's a lot fairer than sending the troops back for 3 or 4 or 5 tours of duty. And I don't think the guy's getting a pass because he's a Muslim, I think not enough information is in to know what is motivation is. My sense is he's a lot closer to Harris and Klebold on the spectrum than Atta, but I could be wrong.

pfire:

Actually, there's more evidence he was a nutjob than a jihadist. He was socially isolated, couldn't establish connections. He wasn't married because he had too many restrictions--serious sign of something out of whack. There were a number of warning signs, but no one followed up on them. He wanted to get out of the military, but they wouldn't let him. Why? They are seriously understaffed, particularly in the area of medical and psychological personnel. This is our "all-volunteer" army. Maybe if they brought back the draft, it would be easier to get rid of those who were clearly unfit to serve.

I don't think you have very much of an understanding of worldwide jihad terrorism, and how it works.

I got some news for you.

Having serious social and psychological problems is a normal part of becoming a suicidal/homicidal jihadi terrorist. By definition, believing that God wants you to spray random people with gunfire until you are finally killed does not make you "normal" according to American suburban norms.

Funny thing is, though, that it DOES put you in the mainstream of international Islamic thought and culture. Many opinion polls in the Arab world have established this as normal behavior for their culture.

What we have here is a culture clash, not a psychiatric problem.

@MisterPerson -- And exactly which polls would those be? Myself, I'm more worried about the 2 women in New York who had accidents while driving drunk and killed 1 and 8 people respectively. I'm more concerned about the guy who opened fire on an immigration help center, and the guy who opened fire on an office in Miami, than Muslims who serve in the military. The drunk driving moms are almost certain to have a higher end of year death total than the Muslims in the military. And you, an expert on worldwide Jihad, can be afraid of whatever you want. The Muslims! Yes! They are here! Coming to get you! Down the street! At your door! Like I said in a previous thread, we can always go back to interment camps. It worked so well the last time.

All you people poo pooing the domestic Jihadi threat have very short memories. Have we all forgotten 9/11? Also are you blind to how many 10s of thousand of people they have killed all over the world? Ignoring a problem won't make it go away.

@MisterPerson -- And exactly which polls would those be?

Those would be, for example, Pew global surveys conducted in Jordan, Lebanon Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey and Morocco over a number of years. Typically, the majority of respondents supported suicide bombers.

Right, I get the message. You care more about what happens on your block today, than what has been going on in the world for years.

You have the absolute right to be a happy simple carefree guy who doesn't know or care what goes on elsewhere- but why crow about it on Slate?

@MP -- Again, exact polls. Links, please. My concern regarding worldwide jihad concentrates around Pakistan and the area around Afghanstan that borders it. In this country, about 3,000 people are killed in car accidents a month. In my own city, we've had a rash of murders of schoolchildren. In the context of what the majority of people in this country have most to fear, I believe these kinds of things are the more imminent and pressing concern, along with lowering education standards. But, of course, you are the expert.