Roberto Marquez adjusts the candles and flowers at a memorial to the victims of a deadly truck attack on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/George Walker IV) In less than 24 hours, and only a few hours into 2024, two military service members were named as suspects in horrifying and puzzling acts. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, was a veteran of the Army and authorities say he pledged allegiance to ISIS before ramming his truck into a crowd in New Orleans, leaving 14 people dead. Authorities say Matthew Livelsberger, a Green Beret, shot himself in the head after detonating an improvised explosive device outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.
As they scramble to find the “why” for both incidents, the commonality of service between the two suspects highlights the absolute need for mental health checks for veterans and active-duty military members.
For Jabbar, it is extremely easy to just blame Islam. Now, I am not going to tell you that the ultra-fundamentalist Islamic State is not a problem. Their legacy of death has spanned the Middle East, Europe and the U.S. But, somewhere along the way, Jabbar ran into familial and financial trouble . He may have looked for help or he may have kept it all to himself. But at some point, his troubles made him turn to rage and there he found solace in the hatred that ISIS espouses.
The FBI will pull back the layers of his life to find out how he went down the ISIS rabbit hole. But someone should look to see if Jabbar sought help from the VA or elsewhere for his issues. He deployed overseas to Afghanistan , so was he screened for PTSD when he returned? Did he seek out help? But most importantly, should we start making it mandatory for veterans to have mental health screenings after they leave the service?
Mental health issues can arise years after the fact. Many veterans, because of pressure or pride, will deny anything is wrong with them when they first leave service. However, for some they can […]
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