Disconnected Dots

A great deal has been made—and is being made—of the fact that Wade Michael Page, the man who shot and killed six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, was a veteran of the U.S. Army. The press appears to be searching for some pertinent connection between details of Mr. Page’s service and yesterday’s horrific event: Post-traumatic stress disorder, perhaps, or training in some ‘elite’ outfit.

But Mr. Page was in the Army between 1992 and 1998, too late to have served in the Persian Gulf War and too early either for Iraq or Afghanistan—too early, even, for the (exclusively airborne) campaign in Serbia. His service record, which includes at least one demotion in rank, appears to have been almost wholly undistinguished.