Nov 07 2009
Fort Hood – How Could This Happen
Picture courtesy of AP
Thirteen people dead, 38 injured on Fort Hood Army Base and the question arises “how could this happen?” The obvious answer is that with the ease and availability of the purchase of firearms in America, anyone with the right credentials can walk into a store, buy a gun and Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, a psychiatrist, had the right credentials and his gun of choice is called a “cop killer” because of the ease in which the bullets penetrates body armor.
In the midst of attempting to find a psychological answer to the question of “how could this happen” a Florida man walks into an office where he had been fired two years ago and opens fire, killing one person and wounding five others while others attempt to imply that the Fort Hood tragedy may have been a result of repeated deployments to war zones.
While you can attach as much psycho babble to the cause of both of these deadly incidents, in an effort to explain why this happened, the real culprit is the fact that Americans feel strongly about their “fundamental right” to bear arms not caring that this fundamental right leads to mass homicide whenever someone gets angry enough to seek revenge, real or imagined, walk into a place where people are plentiful and simply open fire, killing indiscriminately.
Another question that has been posed is “were there signs that the Fort Hood Major was capable of this violent act?” The real truth of the matter is that you will never know exactly what is churning in someone else’s mind unless you are a proven mind reader and how many people carry this distinction of being a mind reader? Hindsight does not count and that’s the only thing you are left with after a tragedy like this happens.
Now that Maj. Hasan has committed this heinous crime, the look back has provided some indications that he may have had serious issues with being in the military, his first time deployment to Iraq/Afghanistan and based on the things being said, in his face, about his heritage, being of Jordanian descent, which I believe he did experience. The reality is that even if he were sent to Iraq/Afghanistan, he would not have been in battle but instead been part of the support services for combat soldiers.
The ugly thing about the negative things said about his heritage is that if someone talks about your weight, you can lose weight, if someone talks about how ugly you are, you can get plastic surgery, get a hair weave, wear some makeup and change your look. However, your religion and your race are “fundamental” parts of who you are.
While you may be able to change your religion, although your religious beliefs are the beliefs that guide you in life, you can never change your race, your heritage, the skin you were born in and if you are proud of the race you are and your religious beliefs the anger that builds when those things are criticized, cuts deep.
Now in no way am I condoning Hasan’s actions; he had options. He could have just as easily gone AWOL, fled to his Jordan or any other foreign country that he, as a Muslim, felt comfortable in. He could have sought psychological help since obviously he believed in the method of psycho analysis since that is the career field of his choice. He could have killed himself rather than killing others but instead he chose to take the lives of innocents.
Only in hindsight, which does not prevent an act, can you look upon the causes that may have lead to this incident because even though he showed signs of discontent, it was never so clear that he would actually go to the extremes that he went to in an attempt to be “heard.” Even as the video images of him in the neighborhood Convenience Store, chatting and smiling as he made his purchase did not allude to what was actually churning in his mind – several hours later he was shooting and killing those around him.
The bottom line is that you can label him crazy, punish him for his crimes but if he had not had easy access to the firepower, the guns that he carried, there is a bigger possibility that he would not have been able to commit this act of terrorism on the men and women of the United States Army regardless of what type of inner turmoil he was going through and even though he was on a military base where guns are plentiful.
The irrational saying that “guns don’t kill, people kill” used to justify this fundamental right to bear arms, has been proven time and time again to be an idiotic play on words that covers the real dangers of the “right to bear arms” being exercised here in America. Until you get to the core of the problem, these acts of violence will continue and increase and no amount of psycho babble will change this fact.
And that’s the way I see it!!!!



















