Thomas Wictor

Yesterday a soldier carried out a mass shooting at Fort Hood. The CNN report I quote does everything to make the reader think this was a combat veteran who snapped. Because of agendas, everything I now hear goes into the open file. Basically, all the the reporting from April 2, 2014, was utterly worthless. It’s not a new phenomenon.

Here are excerpts from the CNN story headlined, “Fort Hood Shooter was Iraq Vet Being Treated for Mental Health Issues.”

(CNN) — Ivan Lopez’s friendly smile apparently gave no hint of a history of depression, anxiety and other psychiatric disorders.

The Iraq war veteran was being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder before he opened fire at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas on Wednesday. He took his own .45-caliber handgun onto the sprawling base and killed three people and wounded 16 more before taking his own life, leaving authorities to piece together what in his background and medical treatment could have triggered a new round of bloodshed at the same Killeen base where an officer killed 13 people in 2009.

Lopez, a 34-year-old specialist, served four months in Iraq and was undergoing treatment for mental health issues…

Six more paragraphs follow, and then we come to this.

Combat history:

He served for four months as a truck driver in Iraq in 2011, Army Secretary John McHugh told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, without naming Lopez. His records “show no wounds, no direct involvement in combat … or any injury that might lead us to further investigate battle-related TBI (traumatic brain injury),” McHugh said. Lopez enlisted in the Army in June 2008 as an infantry soldier, later becoming a truck driver, McHugh said.

Milley said, “He was not wounded, according to our records.” However, Lopez “self-reported” suffering a traumatic brain injury while deployed, he said.

He had no combat history. Not only that, he was a truck driver for only four months in Iraq in 2011, long after major combat operations and the American role in the counterinsurgency had ended.

He was going through the process required to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder. “He was not diagnosed, as of today, with PTSD,” Milley said. That process takes time. Milley said Lopez was also taking antidepressants.

“He was not a wounded warrior, no Purple Heart, not wounded in action in that regard,” Milley said.

Contrary to the reporting of yesterday and the beginning of this CNN article, neither war nor injury were behind this guy’s actions. This is why it’s so important to do one’s own research before getting on whatever bandwagon the agenda-mongers are driving. Remember a few months ago, when everyone was touting the suicide rate among veterans? The clear implication was that horror of combat caused troops to take their own lives.

Well, 85 percent of troops who commit suicide never saw combat. Did you know that? I’m betting you didn’t. And the reason you didn’t was because of agenda reporting.

Also, you’re hearing lots of references to veterans with “traumatic brain injury” (TBI). The problem is that there’s no agreed-upon definition of traumatic brain injury. So once again, people are using terms that they don’t understand, in an effort to advance an agenda.

Combat-related TBI is generally concussion caused by explosives. The enemy uses rocket-propelled grenades, (RPGs,) mortars, improved explosive devices (IEDs), car bombs or vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED), and suicide vest improvised explosive devices (SVIED). Explosions create shock waves that can cause traumatic brain injury.

In this terrorist attack in Sadr City, Iraq, the suicide bomber walks into the frame at 0:17 and detonates himself at 0:20. You can see the destructive power of even an explosive vest.

However, here’s another thing the agenda-driven media won’t tell you about the TBI statistics among veterans.

Veterans may sustain TBIs throughout their lifespan, with the largest increase as the veterans enter into their 70s and 80s; these injuries are often caused by falls and result in high levels of disability.

Active duty and reserve service members are at increased risk for sustaining a TBI compared to their civilian peers. This is a result of several factors, including the specific demographics of the military; in general, young men between the ages of 18 to 24 are at greatest risk for TBI. Many operational and training activities, which are routine in the military, are physically demanding and even potentially dangerous. Military service members are increasingly deployed to areas where they are at risk for experiencing blast exposures from improvised explosive devices (IEDs), suicide bombers, land mines, mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades. These and other combat related activities put our military service members at increased risk for sustaining a TBI.

Although recent attention has been intensively focused on combat-related TBI, it should be noted that TBI is not uncommon even in garrison and can occur during usual daily activities. Service members enjoy exciting leisure activities: They ride motorcycles, climb mountains and parachute from planes for recreation. In addition, physical training is an integral part of the active duty service member’s everyday life. These activities are expected for our service members and contribute to a positive quality of life; but these activities also can increase risk for TBI.

When you hear about veterans with TBI, those with agendas want you to think that it’s only combat that causes it, when in reality it’s also due to age, training, and the things they do for fun.

I suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and traumatic brain injury. In my life I’ve had two concussions, the first as a child when the front wheel came off of my bike, and I went over the handlebars onto the road, and the second in college after I finished my freshman-year exams and tried to jump down a flight of stairs in celebration. The top of my head hit the concrete underside of the stairs above, and I concussed myself.

PTSD and TBI are real, but like so many other important concepts they’re losing their meaning because those with agendas are throwing the terms in all directions, like an ape hurling its own turds. There’s something called the forty-eight-hour rule when it comes to reporting. I live by it.

Don’t believe any story for forty-eight hours.

Just to be safe, I stretch it out to two years.