Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, on November 5 went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas. The ensuing gunfire left 13 dead and 30 injured. Hasan himself was shot four times by law enforcement personnel. He survived and is currently under military guard in a hospital.

Hasan is unconscious and on a ventilator. Lieutenant General Bob Cone at Fort Hood commented, “I would say his death is not imminent.” Hasan’s shooting spree is believed to be the worst in history at any U.S. military base.

Fox News reported on November 6 that there is a chance “some casualties may have been victims of ‘friendly fire,’ shot by authorities amid the mayhem and confusion at the scene,” according to a senior U.S. official who was speaking anonymously.

Hasan, a Virginia native and a Muslim, was about to be deployed overseas. Retired Colonel Terry Lee told Fox News that he had worked with Hasan, and Hasan was scheduled to go to Afghanistan. Lee said Hasan wanted to see U.S. troops pulled out of Afghanistan and Iraq, and he often engaged in arguments with other military personnel who supported the wars.

Federal law enforcement officials told AP that they had first taken notice of Hasan about six months ago, but they did not open an official investigation at the time. Hasan had made some Internet postings that mentioned suicide bombers and compared them favorably to a soldier who throws himself on a grenade to protect others.

“To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. It’s more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause,” Hasan allegedly claimed in the posting. “Scholars have [paralleled] this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers.”

Hasan had worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before receiving a poor review. He was transferred in July from Walter Reed to Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood.

The shooting happened at about 1:30 p.m. on November 5 at the Soldier Readiness Center, where soldiers are medically screened before deployment or when returning from deployment. Hasan reportedly had two weapons, and at least one was semi-automatic.

President Barack Obama said the incident was a “horrific outburst of violence” on the members of America’s armed forces. He noted, “It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an army base on American soil.”

Actually, it is just as horrifying when they come under fire while waging undeclared, unconstitutional wars in foreign lands. Americans have now been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan longer than the amount of time the United States spent fighting World Wars I and II combined — and there is still no end in sight. The strain of perpetual war on our troops is terribly debilitating.

The Wall Street Journal on November 3 pointed out that 16 American soldiers killed themselves in October — both in the United States and overseas — “an unusually high monthly toll that is fueling concerns about the mental health of the nation's military personnel after more than eight years of continuous warfare.”

“The October suicide figures mean that at least 134 active-duty soldiers have taken their own lives so far this year, putting the Army on pace to break last year’s record of 140 active-duty suicides,” the Journal reported. “The number of Army suicides has risen 37% since 2006, and last year, the suicide rate surpassed that of the U.S. population for the first time.”

According to the Journal, “The Army’s top generals worry that surging tens of thousands more troops into Afghanistan could increase the strain felt by many military personnel after years of repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The shooting at Fort Hood and the suicides of overstressed military personnel are tragic. The deaths of those serving overseas are no less tragic though, and all of this loss of life is part of the price of perpetual war. There is no reason to doubt that President Obama is truly horrified by what happened at Fort Hood, but it is time to be horrified by what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan as well.

Photo: AP Images

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pepe said:

	False flag operation Sounds like a false flag operation.
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November 06, 2009
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Jake Oliver said:

	... When is this going to stop!!!! Muslims of any kind should not be allowed to live in our country. Their thinking is all wrong. Send them back to their own country, before our country becomes theirs.
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November 06, 2009
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Flu-Bird said:

	As always As usial the liberals will blame the guns as they always do intead of our permisive imagration laws
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November 06, 2009
Votes: +5

Quenby Wilcox said:

Their Thinking?!?! - What does that mean Dear Jake, Do you ever actually listen to what you are saying? First, if this guy was serving in the US military he is an American. So sending him back to his country won't work, because he is in his country!!!!! Second, when you say "their thinking," what are you referring to? The Koran, Bible and Toro are all filled with the same rhetoric and used by crazy, extremist psychopaths to justify their violence and hate. So when you refer to "their thinking" are you referring to all religious thinking, or what? Third, their is no evidence that his actions were religiously motived. It would be just as logical to conclude that his motivations were somehow linked to his professional training as to his religious beliefs. Does anyone ever do comprehensive psychological and psychiatric testing on mental health care professionals before hiring them?!?! This guy's problem is that he is a violent psychopath who was taught to resolve conflict and anger through violence. It has nothing to do with his religion, ethnic origin, nationality or profession. Once again I quote James Prescott in his article “Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence,” “It is clear that the world has only limited time to change its custom of resolving conflicts violently. It is uncertain whether we have the time to undo the damage done by countless previous generations, nor do we know how many future generations it will take to transform our psychobiology of violence into one of peace.” Unfortunately, this was written in 1975 and it appears that we have made little to no progress in changing the way we educate and raise our children.

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November 06, 2009 | url
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dalton said:

	stupid towelheads i hate dam towel heads trying to ruin our american country, they should all be sent back or killed for what they conintue to do.
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November 06, 2009
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Lee Gonzales said:

Analyzing the media analyzers the alleged gunman; the media spin, and nuts with guns. He is a psychiatrist who needs one. He attends services in a military uniform. Here is an example of what a religious man, soldier and psychiatry student should not do- use a deadly weapon to make a political point by firing on unarmed, innocent people. His commander-in-chief uses a deadly weapon (the entire US government) to make a point by ordering the US military to fire on unarmed and innocent people. That's different- he's a Democrat! Oswald was a committed, dedicated Marxist who used a deadly weapon to make a point. A president is martyred and we move further away from civil society, the ideals of a Republic and the moral foundations of our Judeo Christian heritage. Jack Kennedy wore a US Navy uniform. He was shot dead by a "deranged" lone gun-man who once wore the nation's uniform. Therefore, uniforms kill? The spin doctors will tell us to be more attuned to multiculturalism. It is this Jingoist Christian patriotism that caused the Muslim to go haywire. His anger was stoked by the macho pride of Christians; his hatred of millions of Christians who have fought and died in our country's uniform. Therefore, we must do away with nations’ military uniforms and use one uniform for all the world’s soldiers- the UN uniform. God has to disappear from our Pledge Allegiance and from our coins and paper Fed notes. Totally secularize our military and totally emasculate our military. After all wasn’t it a woman who finally brought down the alleged gunman? She had permission from the CIC to carry a sidearm. The headshrinker did not have permission; therefore Mao was right- political power does fly out the barrel. Let us sum up the Media spin doctors’ prescription: No guns in private hands. No Jesus.

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November 06, 2009
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Holly said:

The Real Solution How about instead of "sending people back to their own country" (which is perfectly appropriate in the cases of people who have not followed the correct procedures to be here legally) we reach these people and tell them the true story of Christ. While God is a God of righteous anger Who fully endorses war in its rightful place (just read the Old Testament for proof), he also is a God of infinite love that is inconceivable to our human minds. God would not want anyone to shoot people for no reason. He would, however, endorse fighting to protect those who are being oppressed or who are breaking laws. In God's eyes, Hasan should be punished for what he has done, but even more importantly, he would want Hasan to realize that what he did was completely wrong and against His will. He would want Hasan to realize that He loves him and everyone else in the world. God always endorses proper authority giving proper punishment and judgment. And as far as the argument as to whether we should be in Iraq or not, my father has served for one and a half years in this war and he becomes angry any time someone mentions the possibility of coming back before the job is done. The American military is a wonderful thing and if you don't like it, find another place to live. I am shocked at the lack of patriotism some people display when they refuse to stand behind our soldiers, the very men who give their blood in order that they might have the freedom to stand up and say such treasonous statements. Why not thank them and encourage them instead of verbally shooting them down? Just read a history book and you will see that it is totally impossible to have peace without some war. If we continue silencing our soldiers, just watch. Our country will soon be a communist nation. Instead of spending your time discouraging our heroes, how about thanking one of our soldiers today?

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November 06, 2009
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justin said:

... u all are pathetic...america is the enemy tryin to make a one world goverment...do not forget that maerica is the one who was abusing afgans at a prison stripping them naked and having them form pyramids that resemble the great archetect like the dollar bill.. dont u get it?? we are the enemy and u all are being fooled...dosnt matter cuz when jugment day comes u all will be judged acoording to your warship of the beast....fools america is the out of many one...and forever debt slaves..

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November 06, 2009
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Bonnie said:

Could have been prevented Hasan often expressed support for Islamic jihadists, once saying that Muslims needed to “rise up” against the aggressors. Hasan said Muslims should stand up and fight the aggressor and that we should not be in the war in the first place. Maj Hasan said he was “happy” when a US soldier was killed in an attack on a military recruitment centre in Arkansas in June, where an American convert to Islam was accused of the shootings. It was also reported Maj Hasan had said “maybe people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Time Square” in New York. "Federal law enforcement officials told AP that they had first taken notice of Hasan about six months ago, but they did not open an official investigation at the time. Hasan had made some Internet postings that mentioned suicide bombers and compared them favorably to a soldier who throws himself on a grenade to protect others." --- This is another tragedy which could have been prevented if it weren't for the fear of "offending the religion of peace".

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November 06, 2009
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