Forget Muslim, he's a psychiatrist! Just what was the us army thinking letting his sort even touch a weapon?
On a darker note, I don't think he'll have to worry about paying any debt to society for much longer. The court martial should be an interesting, albiet short affair stacked with generals from the "shoot him" school of thought.
At first glance he fits the classic profile. Loner, unable to find a woman, turns to religion out which gradually becomes warped by a possible underlying mental illness (psychiatrist with undiagnosed mental illness goes on a rampage... the blackest of ironies there, folks).
What just makes this brutal is that if the reports of him being vehemently against serving in a combat zone
even though he has a non-combat role are true, that his response would be to kill folks who were a hairsbreadth away from being placed directly in the line of fire anyway. God help those poor bastards*. I understand that mental illness can lead to incredibly convoluted and bizarre trains of thought that only pass as logic to their creator - God only knows what went through this fellow's head - but I can't entirely blame any of the generals involved for having a gut reaction like that than I can blame him for doing what he did.
That said, if they were to
follow through with such thoughts, that would be very ugly. There's a damn important distinction between having a bloody-minded reaction and following through on it. That statement they released about how he's not dead... that had an edge to it. There was a rather terrifying
relish in the way they said he 'wasn't going anywhere'.
I don't know what'll happen. This guy's got counts of Murder, Treason In Wartime, and possibly even Armed Insurrection against him. Barring a full mental evaluation that labels him out-and-out insane, he's about as deep in the shitter as you can get.
*
As if getting shot wasn't enough, they won't even be recognised as having been in combat unless a fair-minded general chooses to make an exception. That means the even though they were about to sent to hell, no combat pay if wounded, and no combat pensions for widows or orphans. Christ. version: It's an ugly, horrible, awful situation for everyone involved. About as bad as these kind of shootings can get. I only pray that nobody forgets the infantrymen and women in the process.