Fort Hood Speculation

David Brooks, in the NYTimes today-- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/opinion/10brooks.html?_r=1&ref=opinion-- wrote about the speculation that has taken place regarding the shootings at Ford Hood Army base. As he points out, it seems like everyone was bending over backwards to find an explanation that would not inflame opinion against Muslims. First we were told he was depressed over his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. Well, in David’s words:

“Major Hasan was portrayed as a disturbed individual who was under a lot of stress. We learned about pre-traumatic stress syndrome, and secondary stress disorder, which one gets from hearing about other people’s stress. We heard the theory (unlikely in retrospect) that Hasan was so traumatized by the thought of going into a combat zone that he decided to take a gun and create one of his own.
A shroud of political correctness settled over the conversation. Hasan was portrayed as a victim of society, a poor soul who was pushed over the edge by prejudice and unhappiness”

It is quite likely that this was the action of a man playing out his jihad fantasy. Is that insanity? We may call it that, but a disease that absolves the man of responsibility will not be the verdict.

It now seems that the military and perhaps the FBI knew something of his leanings. The thought that some kind of political correctness kept the authorities from acting is frightening. As surely as Hasan will be punished those who exercised such poor judgement need to be held to account.

Hasan has placed a major burden upon us all. While he may not have acted under the direction or in conspiracy with others, like the Washington sniper (who has likely been executed as this is written) he is under the influence of his distorted belief system. There need be no communication among these individual terrorists. They know the jihad story by heart.

This truth contains the seeds of mass anger and distrust, but we dare not. We must hold on to respect for the millions of Muslims who are not jihadists. If we give in to anger at all Muslims we will all be destroyed. If we do nothing to protect ourselves we will not be better off.

The challenge is upon us.

Melvyn Polatchek