I'm curious if other militaries around the world are experiencing similar "epidemics" of violence among their soldiers as we are here in the states? I'm wondering who has the worse numbers and who has the best and what's going on with those militaries that could be causing their high or low numbers? That would have been a good starting point to make a case for your opinion on what could potentially improve our situation. No one that still reads a newspaper needs reminding that the pychological aspects of being a soldier can cause unwanted and dangerous behaviour in some people. I'm guessing that one reason the military has been so slow to address the problem has a lot to do with the varied results from past attempts to get their heads back on straight. I mean, Hasan was being paid to be part of that solution and yet, he became the biggest problem of all. So now we not only need to pay for mental health professionals to help our soldiers coming back from war, we also need to pay for our mental health professionals to receive counseling after they get paid to counsel. Won't these 2nd line of counselors need counseling after they do their counseling? Perhaps the problem isn't solved by dumping more money into a program that now has become part of the problem. I'm thinking the best place to start is at the beginning. If we stop utilizing our military as our primary tool to do anything other than protect our country from an attacker, we not only will have fewer soldiers needing counseling, we will also have significantly less difficulty explaining to our soldiers why they had to go to war and kill in the first place.

The Army knew this guy was a powder-keg ready to blow, they just moved him to another base. Reminds me of the pedophile priests moving from parish to parish by the church leaders. In contrast, CNN survey found that children made more than 11000 allegations of sexual abuse by 4450 priests.

The case for more focus on the issue of PTSD is a strong one. Returning service personel need to be reviewed for this condition and helped if they are diagnosed with it.Your piece, however, does not help make that case and actually hurts it and confuses the reader about it.Major Hasan was not a PTSD sufferer.You do a great disservice to those in our military when you lump him and his violence in with them.Once again, I find your writing a blend of being nieve & politically correct. You have leaped to a conclusion the facts,thus far, do not support.Beyond never serving in combat or even abroad,it appears that he had bought into some form of jihadist thinking.Frankly your piece is embarassing in its flight from the facts. A real blogger might have questioned how the army promoted a poorly performing doctor and placed him in a position he was so clearly unfit for. You might have considered examining how jihadi clerics & websites are influencing members of our military or the American public at large, or without referencing the Fort Hood event, made a case for greater public understanding of the effects PTSD has on many of our troops but that might have offended your nieve politically correct view of the world.Being a blogger requires you to take chances in your writing, not spin what your friends might agree with. Get serious or get packing.

I am one of the people that helped start the veteran suicide hotline (800-273-TALK, press 1) and @ELGROPO1 I can guaran-damn-tee you that for people with PTSD it is absolutely about therapy. We can talk about so many soldiers who have gone untreated and gone on shooting sprees. A lot of them did not have 'foreign sounding' last names so their motives weren't really questioned beyond an understanding that they had 'lost it.'

For those of you that are worried about political correctness getting in the way of justice or treatment, you've missed the point of this post and are injecting your own agenda. Martin is pointing out (truthfully) that secondary trauma is as real as primary trauma.

Martin hits an important subject head on. Do you really want to thank the troops for their service? Take care of the Vets!

Well written. New facts, logically presented. Well done on Veterns Day!

Americans are in dire need of more realistic thinking and punditry. This is yet another example of specious reasoning, far too pervasive in the media. Ms. Martin is expressing predictable "groupthink," which portrays mass murderer Hasan as a victim. Thirteen people have been murdered and many more injured for life on an American Military base by an intellectual Islamic Fundamentalist. Lives have been lost and forever ruined in an act of terrorism, yet there is not a note of sympathy or mention of their devestation, but instead a misplaced focus for some pathetic understanding of the perpetrator Hasan, who has a history of contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, an extremist with ties to Al Quaeda. This is naivety beyond the pale.

Courtney...PTSD can be seen in the same way that AA sees alcoholism..you are never "cured" but take the appropriate steps and you can deal with it. As a combat vet (2 tours Vietnam...happy veterans day) and a recovering alcoholic I've seen that if you do the work you attain results. Your piece showed that you are well read, but I didn't understand it. Don't tell us that something called "emotional resiliency" exists as a therapy or whatever. Tell us what it is! There are many therapeutic models with PTSD...I've seen the VA come full circle in some respects...why are the paths you mention any different or better? As a previous blogger asked, why did you quit?
My 2nd point has also been mentioned before and it's all over the media. This man had nothing close to PTSD and you do come off as naive when you suggest it. His insanity is the jihadist Islamic extremism that we are confronted with...it's more a contagion than a trauma. He was hanging with the wrong people in the wrong mosques, chatrooms, wherever...he was part of the at-risk population and was infected...geez. that sound epidemiological, doesn't it? The result was a murderous thug and if you really read the literature you won't find many PTSD cases that go that far. Example...contrary to urban legend, none of the post office killers of the 80's were Vietnam Veterans.
My 3rd point is equally obvious. What the hell was the Army doing during the years this guy was under their control and command? There are now numerous stories about his acting out and inability to cope with military life and his own conflicted situation. He told everybody in a powerpoint presentation for heaven sake! Was there polical correctness at play or just bureaucratic inertia...they wanted to recoup their investment. Nevertheless, the idea that this guy was going to treat those with real PTSD...now there's a therapeutic model that would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic.

The problem with this entry is that a conclusion has been draw before all of the facts are in. Courtney believes Hasan is suffering from "contact PTSD" and there is no evidence this is so.

We can be accused of covering up the incidence of mental trauma in our returning military,or neglecting the need for and effectiveness of treatment. But,how can we tie Hasan's actions to these circumstances? This is a weak and unsubstantiated connection.

Once again, Courtney looked for a conflict to tie to a conculsion. Not good punditry.

Sorry, Pollyanna, it's not about therapy; this one's about swift and exemplary justice. Hasan is a murdering traitor, not a patient.

Pitiful.

"an epidemic of psychologically damaged veterans to heal. PTSD, suicide, depression, alcoholism, homelessness and sexual assault are rampant."

Some statistics would be illuminating. Unfortunately the statistics for social maladaption for combat veterans explode the underlying presumptions of those who need to hold dearly to the narrative of poor soldiers who were warped by the experience forced upon them by chicken-hawk politicians chasing profits.

Whether homelessness, joblessness, divorce, alcoholism, drug abuse, or suicide, present statistical trends project that eventually combat veterans will be as maladjusted as the civilians who stayed home.

Unfortunately, Ms. Martin has quickly fallen into the trap, as one columnist wrote today, "of kindergarten teachers who had to protect their children from thinking certain impermissable and intolerant thoughts." Major Hasan had immersed himself in a radical form of Islam with warning signs in plain sight. But for political correctness, his abhorrent killing spree might have been prevented. Pre-traumatic stress syndrome, secondary stress disorder do not explain his actiions, rather a nihilistic, perverse interpretation of a great religion does.

PS to previous comments. Much better writing than your previous 2 articles. You seem more comfortable in your own style with this. This reader prefers a less florid, more direct, style. You did that here.

Great start---why'd you quit?

I agree--many soldiers end up homeless, etc. I met an ex-Viet Nam vet, close to homeless, and I thanked him for his service a couple of years ago--and he told me that was the first time anyone had thanked him.

And I'm a Viet Nam draft dodger! After I fled to Canada and lived in the wilderness 700 miles high in Saskatchewan and tried everything to fail a physical when I returned to the U.S., the army psychiatrist did everything he could to stop them from drafting me.

But they drafted me anyways, but the draft ran out.

My point is that they should have discharged the Fort Hood killer. Their excuse is they didn't want to waste his training. But he was not good at his job anyway!

I gave this blog an 8 out of 10, with 10 being the best; and I gave Kevin's blog a 10, maybe because his was longer, and because he took a difficult but honest take on a problem that causes deep thinking.

How is this something that could become a regular feature?

The benefit and curse of modern technology is the expansiveness and swiftness by which we are exposed to events. Warriors have suffered the consequences of war since humans walked upright. Today, we see the gory details. My generation of warriors endured “frag-ings,” “racial attacks” and insults upon returning home without the instant communications of 24-hour news channels, cell phones and the Internet. So, please, let us keep things in perspective. War is an ugly, nasty business – always has been, always will be.

"Clearly much more needs to be done." Like what? This is where your punditry can shine, and you didn't go for it.