WASHINGTON – For years after the 9/11 attacks, Americans worried about fundamentalist Islamic cells infiltrating the homeland and radical jihadists hiding in their midst.
The latest mass shooting at a U.S. military base — and the second in five years at Fort Hood, Texas — raises a potentially more disturbing question: Have the Iraq and Afghanistan wars created American-grown human time bombs with grievous mental and physical wounds that the military and veterans' health care systems can't adequately track and treat?
Senior Army officials Thursday provided conflicting views of Specialist Ivan Lopez's state of mind before his shooting rampage at Fort Hood a day earlier. Lopez killed three people and wounded 16 others before taking his own life.
Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, the commander at Fort Hood, said Friday that Lopez's mental health was "the fundamental underlying causal factor" in the shooting. He said Lopez had an argument with colleagues before opening fire.
Not a threat to others
But Army Secretary John McHugh told Congress that a psychiatrist's examination of the Puerto Rico-born Lopez in March had not disclosed deep enough problems for him to be viewed a threat to others.
"As of this morning, we had no indication on the record of that examination that there was any sign of likely violence, either to himself or to others, no suicidal ideation," McHugh told a Senate committee.
Lopez, who served four months in Iraq, was being treated for depression, anxiety and sleep disturbance, McHugh said.
Relatives of Lopez said he had told them that he had sustained a brain injury and was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
