Reflections on the Virginia Tech School Tragedy

Re: # 43

Utterly and completely respected Masadi sahib,

Read my #36 again. Carefully. And then read your own dimwit raving response.


<< Stop ranting. Stop typing. Roll up your sleeves and join the gang on that construction project. >>

You hear?

Re: # 26

Ah, the comparisons are being offered.

These dark continents where people FAIL to recognize the signs of mental illness, where people call it ``Saya``, call these illnesses and neurotic disorders as ``buri nazar`` of their enemies and neighbours, where such illnesses emerge every day out of repressed sexualities, repressed feminine indentities and where all these mental and psychological disorders are subsumed under the category of ``normal`` cultural behaviour..................these pervert cultures are comparing their every day repressed neurotic behaviour to the western mental health care system which takes great pains to recognize signs of mental and neourotic illness.....................
These dark cultures that fail to recognize that these suicidal Jehadis are nothing but mentally ill needing counselling and medication like CHO ...................

I have now moved out of the West, back to the East.......Back home, so to speak.......It has been an interesting fifteen year journey, preceeded by another four year journey earlier......The West has been very very nice to me.......No complains.......USA has been very good (not to mention lucrative) to me (though I have lost faith in it, because it has, unfortunately, not been good to millions of other people outside the USA)........In Canada, I have discovered the closest social set-up to the perfect society that I have ever encountered........To the point that my next generations will be fully Canadian.......

Yet, I am back....I would like to think that it is for a higher cause.........To give back to where I started from.......But the more I think about it, the more I realize that it may be something else..........

What exactly is that people look for, when they try to achieve internal peace..........It cannot be money........I have yet to reach the same salary that I made in Silicon Valley, seven years ago.......Yet it doesn`t bother me...........I doubt I will ever find a better and more justly and humanely organized society than I did in Canada.......Yet I have moved out.......My salary is, in fact, getting progressively lower, after peaking seven years ago.......I am making less and less, due to the geographical moves I have made, even though I am still moving up the corporate ladder.........And I am moving from organized societies into more turbulent societies........

Yet, my satisfaction level is higher.........Strange.......

What is it that defines satisfaction?.........I have come to the following conclusions:......First and foremost a relaxed and loving childhood (perhaps upto the age of 18 or so, when one can take care of one`s own self)...........Strong personal relationships and interactions(primarily with spouse, children, parents, siblings and a few close friends).......And last but not least, a feeling of achievement, i.e. the inner satisfaction of knowing that one`s efforts in life are going to make some sort of a difference - even a small one - somewhere.........

Here is another one by Larry Johnson....

How Many Dead Equal Failed Government?

By Larry Johnson

What are we to make of the bizarre contrast between our national grief over the terrible slaughter of students and faculty at Virginia Tech and our muted reaction to the continuing bloodbath in and around Baghdad? One mass killing in the 209 years since Virginia Tech was founded is not exactly a trend. It is a terrible thing but not likely to be repeated anytime soon.

We cannot say the same about events in Baghdad and Iraq. Just today four separate car bombs in and around Baghdad left at least 160 Iraqis--mostly Shia--dead. Yesterday, Tuesday, at least 85 bodies turned up and there were more bombings. Monday was not much better--thirty corpses and at least twenty killed in bombings. Sixty nine plus on Sunday. And the beat goes on.



Think about those numbers in relationship to the anger expressed by the public and press because Virginia Tech University officials failed to prevent Monday`s massacre. What would we be saying if another shooter showed up at Virginia Tech on Tuesday and killed 20 more students and another shooter bagged an additional 40 on Wednesday? The President of the University would be lynched, the students would arm themselves, and the police would lose any pretense of control. Why do we think Iraqi Shias and Sunnis should react differently then we would?

When you consider the events of the last week in Iraq there is no reason any sane Iraqi--Sunni or Shia--would have any confidence in the Petraeus plan. Petraeus and U.S forces are in trouble. Desperate trouble. Despite White House flacks and politicians like McCain insisting that things are improving in Baghdad, the continued mass casualty bombings, the stacks of bodies left on the streets, the destruction of key infrastructure (like the Sarafiya bridge), and the bombing of the Iraqi parliament is reality and cannot be casually dismissed as the crazy ravings of a news media intent on reporting bad news.

Hell, compare the conduct of reporters operating in the Iraq combat zones with the nonsense being spewed by every network and cable anchor who managed to buy a seat to Blacksburg, Virginia. Not a single news organization operating at Virginia Tech had to contract body guards and armored cars to move around to report the story. The U.S. based media did not have to find a sand bagged roof in the Green Zone as a background shot for their nightly report. They roamed freely without fear.

That is not the case in Baghdad specifically and Iraq in general. Despite the surge of U.S. troops into Baghdad the violence continues, especially against the Shia majority. Today`s attacks on the Shia, coming on the heels of the resignation of Shia cleric Moqtada al Sadr, are particularly worrisome.

No Iraqi Shia with any sense trusts the Maliki government or the Americans to protect them. Do not be too surprised when the Mehdi Army and Badr Militias, two of the most prominent Shia militias, step up attacks in the coming weeks against Sunni targets and U.S. forces. Why U.S. forces? Because many of the Shia, particularly those mourning loved ones murdered in the latest blasts, will be convinced that the U.S. allowed these attacks to take place. How could they think otherwise? The U.S. is a superpower. The U.S. has deployed more troops to Baghdad ostensibly to protect the people. Yet the Shia are dying now in a disproportionate number. The Shia are likely to draw only one conclusion--this is a deliberate policy of the United States to target and kill the Shia.

Moqtada al Sadr`s recent withdrawal from the Maliki government is fortuitous for him. His folks are not part of the government and cannot be blamed for failing to prevent the latest bloodshed. But they will now be on the scene to offer protection and revenge. If the government cannot protect you and your family then you must do it yourself or back someone who can.

In the total scheme of things the horror unfolding in Iraq will affect our nation`s security more than a month of Virginia Tech massacres. Yet our attention is riveted on Blacksburg not Baghdad. There are some silver linings. At least the media is covering genuine grief and anguish as opposed to the nonsense of a Don Imus or Anna Nicole Smith. And maybe, just maybe, as we contemplate what it means to mourn the single day massacre of 32 students and faculty at Virginia Tech we will develop an empathy for Iraqis who, today, are mourning the equivalent of five Virgina Techs.

But the Iraqis won`t sleep tonight with the hope that today`s heartache was an aberration. Nope. They wake up each and every day confronting a new horror just as bad as Monday in Blacksburg, Virginia. When government institutions and officials prove incompetent or incapable of protecting citizens it is no shocker that people take matters into their own hands.

Welcome to the Hobbesian world of modern Iraq.

okhla writes <<< 1. You were kicked out of the US college by your Gora masters and sent back to Pakistan inspite of your pleadings and wailings >>>

Of course we expect lies from peons of the West, their entire system of legitimation is based on lies, which when exposed reveal their pathetic intellect and maggot infested souls. No US university or college ever kicked me out, this moron just made up this tale, and I returned to Pakistan out of my own free will because unlike the Hamid-like cheerful morons who have no clue about the nuts and bolts of US society and what it does to the individual I understood it for what it is, polite slavery, plain and simple, and I reject all forms of slavery both for myself and others.

Here is a great article on the same subject but mostly talking about the media coverage of the incident.

The Murderer and the Media

By Todd Gitlin

Killers like Seung-Hui Cho are damaged, hugely resentful men who set out to punish the world because they consider it so stupid, or unjust, or negligent, or otherwise damnable as to have failed to recognize their true worth and strength. Thus do diminished men puff themselves up as avenging crusaders.

They don`t really know who diminished them, but it doesn`t matter. As their idea of the original damage is vague, so will their targets be indiscriminate. The whole world is going to be diminished, and so these endlessly bitter men turn themselves into walking arsenals. They turn themselves into broadcasters as well. These killers are in the communication business.

They will send messages to prove they are not, after all, tiny. They claim recognition as giants, virulent in their potency. They are going to force the whole world to suffer their purported greatness. And the means toward this end are double: The killers are going to kill whomever they please, and they are going to make the rest of the world know it. Having left behind a record of depravity, the killer then is going to exit. He will vanish into an eternity of fame. As his markers, he will leave corpses behind. He will be unforgettable - not only a killer, but a great killer. And in a world saturated with media, a great killer must also be a famous killer. Notoriety is immortality. So to complete his glorious task, he turns to accomplices - the media.

Cho, the Virginia Tech killer, turned to NBC News - and the network proceeded to broadcast, and rebroadcast, and re-rebroadcast, his chilling video rant. So did all the other news networks. NBC News President Steve Capus said the network had an obligation to air the video in order to enable the public to get ``inside the mind of a murderer.``
The broadcasters do not share the killer`s purpose, exactly, but they serve it. In his eyes, they are fools who will serve as tools - his tools. As once the killer was humiliated, he will now humiliate these powerhouses of image by turning them into his instruments. For he understands that broadcasters share a purpose with him - getting attention. As so, in the strictest sense, those who broadcast the killers` messages are complicit.

The broadcasters, of course, have their own reasons - they are professional bearers of information, and profit-makers besides. But it is naive to deny the overlap. Maybe the killer would have killed without an amplification system, and maybe not - it`s unknowable, just as it`s unknowable in advance which of many desperate, deranged, damaged souls will some day resort to mass murder. But it is undeniable that the broadcasters are accessories after the fact.

Osama bin Laden knew that. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi knew it. So did the man who kidnapped and beheaded Danny Pearl - Khalid Shaikh Mohammad or whoever it was. So did Cho. The difference was that Cho was devoid of any ideology commensurate with his staggering rage. He was a terrorist with only his own glory as a rationale for terror. The political terrorist commandeers the news, turns it into his organizational video. Cho was an organization of one. He composed his self-advertisement, waved his guns at an audience he would symbolically menace, carried his parcel to the post office, mailed it to the network of his choice, and then returned to the campus to emblazon his name and image in collective memory.

The NBC News officials who decided to broadcast Cho`s hate manifesto profess a plain professional motive - to make him comprehensible, and thereby to enlighten their audience. There is no reason not to take them at their word. Their logic was elementary: Evidence of Cho`s depravity fell into their laps. It was a matter of public concern. It would have been wrong to keep private evidence that had been given them as trustees of public information. The viewers had a right to know - what? How depraved the man was? What a depraved man looks and sounds like?

The viewers did, and do, have a right to know that there are monsters in their midst. But didn`t we already know the monster by his monstrous works? Weren`t the corpses counted already? Weren`t the witnesses heard from? Now that we`ve seen the pictures, what do they reveal that is so illuminating as to counterbalance the fact that the killer, thanks to his killing, got to commandeer the national screen?

In 2002, the American media, given the video of Danny Pearl`s beheading, decided to forbear and not air it. ``News value`` was outweighed by a countervailing moral commitment. Taste prevailed, along with respect for the family, and a desire, perhaps, not to encourage any imitators, not to grant victory to the murderer. This time around, NBC yielded. The killer proved his point - the world could be forced to pay attention.
Killers-in-waiting may not take notice - this time. Or they may.

[This piece appeared in the April 22, 2007, San Jose Mercury News.]

I am not sure why Chowk won’t publish Masadi article but here is an article by Larry Johnson which is as hard hitting as Masadi`s article. Larry Johnson wrote this in a major blog with 100s of comments on his article.

Here is Larry’s biography
Biography
Larry C. Johnson is the Managing Partner and founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. BERG that specializes in counter terrorism and money laundering investigations. Prior to forming BERG, Mr. Johnson worked with the Central Intelligence Agency (1985-1989) and the Department of State`s Office of the Coordinator for Counter Terrorsim (1989-1993).
Since 1994 Mr. Johnson has helped script terrorism exercises for the U.S. military forces that have the counter terrorism mission.


28% of Virginia Tech
By Larry Johnson


The United States military paid a heavy price Monday in Iraq, a terrible harbinger of what our troops will face in the future. Iraqi insurgents deftly exploited a major vulnerability of U.S. forces and in a single attack killed 9 U.S. soldiers. That is almost one-third of the number killed last week at Virginia Tech by a crazed gunman. This is the largest loss of life in a single ground attack since the war began.

According to the AP:

Nine U.S. soldiers were killed and 20 wounded Monday in a suicide car bombing against a patrol base northeast of the capital in Diyala province, a volatile area that has been the site of fierce fighting, the military said.

The attack came on a day when insurgents struck acrossIraq, carrying out seven other bombings that killed at least 48 people. . . .

It was the second bold attack against a U.S. base north of Baghdad in just over two months and was notable for its use of a suicide car bomber.

The various Iraqi insurgent groups will certainly count this as a major success and will try to replicate it in the coming days. The current surge strategy makes this kind of incident more likely. Why?

The surge strategy is predicated in large measure on the dispersal of U.S. troops to outposts known as "Joint Security Stations". It gives your forces a chance to "get to know" the locals but it also makes them more vulnerable. Pat Lang commented on this earlier this year:

That means that we will have numerous small garrisons placed alone in "Indian Country" in positions that will come to be well known to insurgent reconnaissance. These garrisons will have to be supplied in spite of IEDs, anti-aircraft ambushes and sniping. The widely dispersed garrisons will be co-located with Iraqi security forces. This is an inherent security problem. Tactical reserve (QRF) forces will have to be large and highly mobile.

Smaller outposts situated in the middle of urban areas means U.S. troops have less stand-off--i.e., less ability to construct a fortified perimeter that pushes potential attackers away from the U.S. troops. Less stand-off means attackers can get closer. Insurgents face an easier tactical problem in planning their attacks on these outposts. We may see a surge in the coming days. Yes sir. But it may be a surge of attacks on these small outposts.

We are well on track for the second consecutive month in which U.S. military casualties will exceed that of their Iraqi counterparts. Do you understand this point? The burden of "defending" the new Iraq government is being borne primarily by U.S. troops not Iraqi troops. That is not a recipe for success or victory. It the Iraqi military and police will not bear the brunt of ensuring security in their own country then our soldiers have no business being there. Looks to me like the Iraqis are playing us for suckers. And many U.S. soldiers who are the same age of the Virginia Tech students who died last week shed their blood for nothing today. And you wonder why I'm pissed?

sorry...wrong thread...apologies...;(

sorry...wrong thread...apologies...;(

[Ditto! I said both are the same language(s) written in two different scripts.

Samar[- samer1982 #63.

...if you think they are the same language written differently then do me a favor and explain to us the meaning of this rare ghazal by a hindi poet shri josh malihabadi.


RizwaN ne sar-e-arsh ye di jaa ke duhaii
ay Khaliq-e-Israar-e-azal ramz-e-sarishti

jannat ki fizayeN haiN mukaddar kai din se
amada-e-ighlaam haiN hooroN se baheshti

ghilmanoN ke sifroN se lahoo behta hai paiham
kambakht ghisaRte haiN hareeri maiN voh khisti

kya kya maiN nasabnamay bataoon ke Khudawand
inn maiN koi rizvi, koi naqvi, koi chishti



Thanks in advance…;)

masadi dear, your name should have been `fasadi` instead......





just joking...

Re: # 32

Utterly and completely respected Masadi Sahib,

You are absolutely wrong. Chowk editors are not ``afraid`` of any facts. It is you Masadi, who has his ``facts`` all muddled up. The rest of the world (including Chowk editors) with the possible exception of Zeemax and the populace of Lululand, do not agree with your asinine views at all.

The BS that you call ``research``, your lunatic ``theories`` , your insane ``dimwit`` arguments, do not deserve to get published anywhere (except lulu.com).

Kindly wake up to the facts that :

1. You were kicked out of the US college by your Gora masters and sent back to Pakistan inspite of your pleadings and wailings.

2. The Pakistani college which offered you a position based on your fake ``credentials`` wasted no time in booting you out as soon as the discovered the real you.This second rejection by the Brown masters has completely unhinged you.

3. Rejection of your ``article`` by Chowk editors is just a simple continuation of the trend.

Accept reality. Go see a shrink. Take a break. Before you get hysterical and suffer a nervous breakdown. Try to make a positive contribution to Pakistan. Cut the crap. Do some manual labour. Stop ranting. Stop typing. Roll up your sleeves and join the gang on that construction project.

Wishing you well, Masadi.

Hello dr sb,

Nice detailed treatment of the topic. I can put a few words on my thoughts on the subject. I think there are a few people who are incapable of winning the kind of position they think they deserve in the society but this `defence mechanism` of denial, as a consequence of their extra-large ego does not let them accept the fact that they are actually inferior. Doing real work to imporove their situaiton involves identifying their problems, which in turn requires accepting them to be there. They are incapable of improving like the rest of us. The cycle of their disappointment continues and they start thinking them to be a being who is wasting his time in this mean world which is not worthy of having him. This disappointment with life and people as a whole will surely make him do anything. I think this guy was closer to a suicide bomber, just the difference is that he created his own rationale for it.

Now let`s come to the solution of this. One possibility is that such people need a circle of people who have soft corners for them for whatever reason. Such a network will keep their detachment with the world at a mitigated level.

I actually knew somebody who was like this.

Re: # 30

dear aquaris....i have been thinking about your question but i do not have a satisfactory

answer. my impression is that every culture makes certain choices which has its benefits

and its problems...historically americans believed in personal freedom. and there are lots

of benefits of that freedom....especially in fine arts as well as pursuit of science. that is why

america produces many wonderful scietists and artists every year. but freedom comes with

responsibilties. some people who have mental problems cannot handle that freedom while

there are others who have a bad or no conscience and they abuse that freedom and power.

but they are in minority. i never lived in america and chose to live in canada. but i have

one test one litmus test for every country...

how many people want to come to that country?

and how many want to leave that country?

i still feel that in spite of all the criticisms i see more people want to come to america than

leave it.. i wonder..why?

as i said in my article...many come with wonderful dreams of a better future...for some

unfortunately those dreams turn into violent nightmares. we gain some...we lose some...

every era and every generation makes some choices too....i think violence all over the

world has increased in the last century....all communities and cultures are afffected by

it...either we will commit coillective suicide or grow to the next stahe of evolution and learn

to live peacefully....i may not have given you a satisfactory answer but i was not ignoring

you. sometimes i do not know what to say and i stay quiet...you know i am a

psychotherapist and psychotheraits are used to listening quietly...smiles... sohail

Sigh...here we go again. Every time a shocker like this goes down you have psychologists, sociologists, psycho-sociologists, anthropologists, endoctrinologists, palmists, astrologists, economists, socialists, capitalists and just about every other ist you can think of coming up with grandiose theories about which society is better, which is sick and why, etc.

I guess we just have to live with the fact that there are nutcases and violent bastards in every society. Some burn their brides, others drown foetuses. Some shoot their own sisters for falling in love, others rape 2-year olds.

The only thing that gets my goat about the American media is the tendency to go ``Ahhh....he`s killed 32 people for no apparent reason...ergo he must have been sick.`` Puh-leeeze... sick people don`t choose their sickness, it`s thrust upon them and they do their best to cope with it. Cho was a loser who wasn`t that bright to begin with and made some atrocious choices in life- an English major? for Chrissakes the guy could barely string together a coherent sentence and his ``McBeef`` would be a riot if it wasn`t so tragic.

Blame it on his classmates for taunting him, his teachers for neglecting him, his old grandmother from Korea for whacking his bottom when he was 5, his neighbourhood grocer for hurling racist epithets at him...take your pick, but it`s not going to change the fact that this was a person who, had he chosen it, had a bright future ahead of him. He screwed it up entirely by himself and left a trail of death, destruction and turmoil in his wake. He deserves no sympathy. I hope he rots in hell.

I had submitted an article on the Issue Worthy & Unworthy Victims: The Virginia Tech Massacre & Iraq however it was censored by the Chowk editors, as are most of my other articles. They are afraid of the facts that put the US social system in a bad light...