Thoughts on Abdo

Submitted by Sigmund Derman (United States), Aug 22, 2012 at 10:28

That's very good point. If he had joined prior to 9-11 he would have had little expectation of fighting Muslim fighters. But anyone who joins now knows what he is up against.

On the other hand, people do change their minds, especially younger people who often have not had time to sufficiently mature and reflect on their ideas and beliefs. His thinking may well change again. In any case, the Army is much better off without a person with his specific ideas about fighting against other Muslims. An individual certainly can have some reservations about war in general and even about particular wars and still do a great job in the military. But when the reservations are so strongly structured and focused as his, just get him out of there. Even if he has no intention of deliberately harming his fellow soldiers, he would be a menace.

The child pornography has to be viewed as a separate issue. I do not think he was specifically targeted. But anyone with common sense has got to realize that if you antagonize any powerful employer for whom you work, that employer is going to run through all your files and you had better have wiped off anything even slightly suspicious using high level file removal programs many months before you start causing a ruckus. This applies to anything suspicious on your computer--income tax, gambling, anything. I don't mean to be telling people how to get away with a crime but there are some things that can be misconstrued. If you intend to "cause trouble" (even in a justified case such as a justified whistle blower), clean up your files first because everything is going to be examined. That's just the way life works now in the 21st century. Abdo is no exception. The powers that be are going to run your files whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, atheist, whatever.

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