First of all, it is not “making excuses” for a murderer to try to find out what caused the crime, and, where psychological factors were obviously present, to consider the part they played in the murders. Second, to note the fact that such a killing comes out of military training and occurred in a military environment, added to the current problems with soldier-suicide and PTSD, plus the fact that the murderer had been trying, unsuccessfully, to get out of the military, all would seem to indicate a relationship between that environment, that training, and a psychotic break.  When such circumstances are previously known and documented, and deliberately or carelessly ignored, the system of deployment should come in for questioning as well.
  Hanging this complicated situation on “radical Islam”—the popular current whipping post—is taking the easy out and ignoring many complications that we need to examine and learn from.  It may have figured in to some extent (Evidence indicates that he felt discrimination because of his religion.), but using the Muslim issue politically to whip up anti-Muslim rage is likely to be a dangerous over-simplification. Also, if, as alleged, he was trying to convert soldiers under his care to Islam, two questions arise:  Why was he permitted to do so? and
Is it okay, then, for officers to teach Christianity
in military settings, as has frequently been done, according to reports.
  And one last question:  With his known history, plus his plainly stated desires for release, why was he deliberately directed toward service in the Middle East when surely, among some hundreds of other U.S. military locations, he could have been placed elsewhere, which might have avoided the calamity. Maybe not, but we’ll never know. Better still, he might have simply been directed to seek help, or have been dismissed, which is actually what he is said to have desired.