Massacre at U.S. Army Base, Fort Hood, Texas

An Army Psychiatrist Changes Sides

The killing of 12 soldiers and the wounding of 31 others at Fort Hood Texas occurred in the early afternoon. The huge Army installation is still locked down as of 06:30 and so are most of the facts associated with this disaster. The authorities who are investigating the case, which include the FBI, are under strict advisory not to provide details. An Army spokesmen told news reporters that a terrorism link is "not being discussed" but 39 year old Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan is reported to be an American born Muslim, angry at being deployed to Iraq. Hasan was an Army psychiatrist and was not authorized to carry weapons, leading to speculation he planned the massacre.

For now, any facts that are known are closely guarded by the authorities and not released to news organizations. What has been widely reported is that Major Hasan was shot to death by a civilian policeman after his shooting spree. That civilian policeman was killed also in the firefight. According to the many media outlets covering the massacre, Hasan used two handguns to commit violence upon soldiers at the processing center where people are deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Right now, there are more questions than answers and the President went on television to assure Americans that all questions will be answered. No doubt they will be, but one wonders how much of political correctness will be spoon-fed to Americans who mourn these victims, described by one military expert as veteran "war fighters." Certainly, there is a need to restrain anti-Muslim anger which might tend to run amok, but another question can be legitimately asked, too. How much of Islam is religion in the sense of redeeming human spiritual life, how much of it is politics, and how much of it is deadly?