Fort Hood Massacre Downgraded by Government to "Workplace Violence"

Here’s a headline that I came across recently that fired me up like crazy: “Obama: Fort Hood Massacre Was ‘Work Place Violence.” Now, this may have been all over television – I don’t know – I don’t watch enough television to comment about that but I read a lot! I’m incredulous at how this has been relegated to the back burner in the news and apparently with our government until they decided to rename it.

I live about 30 miles from Fort Hood which is located near Killeen, Texas and is the most populous military installation in the world. I know people who are stationed there while serving these United States. I’ve not found a one of those people who consider the incident “Work Place Violence.” It was indeed a “massacre.”

The Fort Hood Massacre took place November 5, 2009 and was the most horrible shooting incident ever to take place on an American military base. A Muslim, U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a doctor (psychiatrist) killed 13 people and wounded 30 others. One of the persons he killed was a pregnant woman. This man also had great input into treating our soldiers and military men suffering mental/emotional problems?

He fired a total of 214 rounds at American soldiers and when the shooting stopped he was still carrying 177 rounds of ammunition on his person. He wasn’t done he just got shot and had to quit ‘cause he was hurt. There has never been any doubt, either military or civilian, the incident was premeditated. He’s been charged with 13 counts of murder and 30 counts of attempted murder.

The following was taken from a report by Kevin Whitelaw on National Public Radio:

“Hasan was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before being sent to Texas in July. He was apparently upset about being scheduled to deploy overseas, according to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas, who told Fox News that she was told he may have been targeting specific individuals. A source told NPRs Joseph Shapiro that Hasan was put on probation early in his postgraduate work at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He was disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues, according to the source, who worked with him at the time.”

Hasan is an American-born Muslim whose internal Army reports indicate other officers/doctors had discussed what appeared to them to be Hasan’s “radical Islam tendencies” since 2005. Well, the massacre took place four years after 2005 – what the hell were all those Army people doing sitting on this? Why didn’t they at least bring this guy to the attention of the powers that be? From what I read he was like a loose cannon just waiting to go off – and did – and yet he wasn’t considered dangerous enough for anyone to take action?

Both before and after the massacre Hasan’s computer showed email to and from Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemen based cleric who was a senior talent recruiter and motivator involved with planning operations for al-Qaeda. Seems right after the incident Anwar al-Awlaki declared Hasan “a hero.” Obviously, these two were in “cahoots” and there’s no doubt about that either.

The U.S. Government thought Al-Awlaki was such a threat to this country that they deployed unmanned aircraft in Yemen to search for and kill him and they finally got him in a drone attack in Yemen on September 30, 2011. Can we recognize a guy in Yemen as a threat but not Hasan -- a dangerous individual in our own military midst living and working in our own country?

A senior law enforcement officer – after the violence – said that a review of Hasan’s computer and his email accounts (he had several) showed he visited websites espousing radical Islamist ideas. This is old news folks – we all read about it when it happened. My question is why in the hell is Hasan still puttering around in his wheelchair (he was crippled during the shooting) and not in prison for life or executed going on three years later? The wheels of justice don’t move that slowly for other murderers.

What is not old news is that our government has downgraded the whole thing to “Workplace Violence.” This was an attack by a Muslim inspired terrorist who shouted “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “God Is Great”) after firing those 214 rounds and killing and injuring all those folks. Follow that up with the comment of his mentor, Anwar al-Awlaki who said, after declaring Hasan a hero, “fighting against the U.S. Army is an Islamic duty.”

It seems this administration goes to great lengths to deny any link between Islam and violence. There’s some senators raising a bit of sand about the “workplace violence” connotation and a hell of a lot of soldiers at Fort Hood who don’t see it that way at all. I can’t imagine that any thinking, caring American sees this mass murder as “work place violence.”

Let’s do a “what if?” Say an old cowboy in West Texas doesn’t get along with his neighbors. They disagree on religion, politics and ranching. The neighbors are all members of the National Guard in their little town so the old cowboy joins too just so he can stay on top of everything going on. He’s known to authorities as a hot head with a militant personality and hanging out with dangerous types. He goes to meetings, attends summer camps, etc. for – oh, say five years or so. He’s got a friend that feels the same way the old cowboy does about all the neighbors so the friend encourages the old cowboy to just quit putting up with the neighbors and get rid of them.

The old cowboy waits until the whole National Guard Unit is gathered for an occasion, walks in and opens fire on the whole bunch. His eyesight isn’t very good and he only kills one National Guardsman and wounds two others.

Now, how long do you think it would take the law in these United States – be it military or civilian – to get this old cowboy nut on trial and sentence him to life in prison or death? In Texas it wouldn’t take any time at all. I’m doubtful it would take much longer in any of the other United States of America. The difference in the old cowboy and Hasan? Hasan’s a Muslim terrorist and it seems there’s a different set of rules for them. Why?

Rep. Peter King of New York, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said military service members are “symbols of America’s power, symbols of America’s might.” It doesn’t appear to me we’re backing up our symbols of power and might. We’re letting an Islamist crazy man jerk this country around like a rag doll. He is a citizen of the United States and should therefore be prosecuted as any other citizen.

Living as close as I do to Fort Hood I hear a lot of comments regarding the fact that Hasan, although still under arrest, is doing just fine. Every time they try to get him to trial there’s another reason he or his defense team aren’t quite ready and the trial doesn’t happen again – and again – and again.

I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of things beginning to happen in this country that just couldn’t quite be accomplished until this election year – things like all of a sudden the reports are there’s fewer unemployed, this administration is cutting back the USDA to save a few trillion-zillion dollars – all that good stuff that’s suddenly big news. How about bringing this nut to trial? That ought to be a huge accomplishment to crow about on an election year!

We need some good news here in Texas and quite frankly I think the rest of the United States would enjoy some too. When is something going to be done to the Terrorist that killed 13 of our people and wounded 30 others on the biggest military base in the world? What happened – happened and why does it matter where he’s from, what he thinks or why he did it?

How does our government’s actions in this matter promote this country’s reputation as a military power in any way? Not only are our soldiers not safe on their own military bases but nothing’s done when they’re attacked there. This is the base where our kids are gathered up and then shipped out to fight in wars we shouldn’t even be in. It appears those on base aren’t much safer than those shipped out.

I really don’t care if Hasan isn’t feeling well, is mentally depressed or is on suicide watch. He’s a murderer whether he’s a Muslim, Islamist, Terrorist or United States Citizen (and it appears he’s all of those) and it’s way past time for this government to bring him to trial and get something done. Country folks call that “fish or cut bait.”

It’s a sad state of affairs when the United States Military can’t trust the government it works for to cover it’s back and give it justice. It’s also time for a bit of professional reporting and truth from the press instead of vague reporting and nebulous thoughts. Seems both the government and the press are totally into remaining “politically correct” and making every attempt to soft pedal this thing and shove it to the back burner – if they mention it at all now.

The following definition, in my opinion, is very true as applying to this incident. I still can’t find who the author is (if you know please share the name with me) but I love it and keep it on my office wall:

“Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end!”

AngelaBlair©2012