He was no "Christian terrorist". He was a deranged person using Christianity as an excuse to commit senseless bloodshed. He endured stress and abuse, and a lot of it for many years, which led him to do what he did, but somewhere along the line, he made the choice to react with violence.

And it seems that's what the suspected Fort Hood slayer did as well. As an Army psychiatrist, he heard horror stories on a daily basis, and probably faced a lot of discrimination being an Arab and Muslim in the armed forces. Learning of his deployment to Iraq was likely the last straw for him. But he wasn't the only Muslim soldier to be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan, and how many of them went on murderous rampages?

He made numerous references to Islam before his act and was reported to have shouted the Takbir during, but once again, it's the use of religion to rationalize and justify. ("I kill you in the name of God", which doesn't have to be a rational argument; see my previous blog entry.) Of course murder is forbidden in both Christianity, Islam and every other religion and ethical system theistic or atheistic so whatever apologetic argument for killing the innocent one comes up with is moot.

But remember, we're talking about deranged inviduals here. These weren't crimes of passion as they were planned out and executed, and the horrible things that happened to one are no excuse for atrocities like these. But stress does to a mind, and, as someone told me once, desperation may lead someone to do something stupid such as a suicide bombing of unarmed civilians. It should be a warning to us all, since everyone does have a breaking point, and the majority of us, never having been to war, can't judge without judging ourselves first.

And this is yet another example why mental health treatment and counseling must be taking more seriously in and out of the military. There are more ticking timebombs like Maj. Hasan or Cho out there--no reason to suspect everyone or profile and discriminate against everyone with a psychiatric diagnosis (mine's schizoaffective/bipolar, so I bear "the stigma"), but there are clear signs of trouble that must be recogniized.