Horrific news today of a violent betrayal at Ft. Hood, which is in Kileen, Texas. A shooting took place on the army base and at least 12 people have died and 31 were injured according to reports. The base was closed and schools were on lockdown until the base was secured. To make matters worse, the shooters (allegedly 2-3) were soldiers themselves. (update: the other two soldiers were questioned and released) The main shooter was said to have been shot dead, his name is Major Malik Nadal Hassan. Later reports say he survived after being shot several times. The other two suspected gunmen have allegedly been arrested and are being questioned.
The reason for this violence? No one seems to know at this early stage; although a family member said that he was fearful of being deployed to Iraq. What is known is that soldiers expect danger and violence when they go to war, however they don’t expect on their own home base on American soil from one of their own.
The psychological terror and stress this incident has and will continue to instill in our soldiers is going to have a tremendous effect on our military men and women. It is being said that the shooter was about to be deployed to Iraq. He was supposedly trained in psychiatry and disaster relief regarding traumatic stress. What then, could explain his actions (or those who joined him)? Will we ever know the whole story?
In the media there is speculation about his background and whether this was an act of terrorism. I don’t know about his religious/ethnic background…and, I think people need to be very careful not to judge on that score until more information is known; however, it definitely is psychological terrorism.
This shooting took place in an area of the base called the Soldier Readiness Facility. This building is a stop for final medical and or dental treatments before military personel are sent overseas for deployment. This assault on the troops right before they are deployed is a terrible psychological trauma. I wonder why a person, who had the kind of medical/psychological training that Mr. Hassan had, would do such a thing? Did he have a mental breakdown …or did he plan a deliberate attack on his fellow soldiers mental preparations right before they were sent off to war for some other reason?
This kind of situation damages trust and training that troops are instilled with. They need to be able to trust and depend on one another. How can they do that when they don’t know if one of their own is going to open fire or kill their own fellow soldiers? They have enough to deal with when fighting a war with the enemy…without worrying about having an enemy within their own ranks.
We have to be careful not to judge any group of people by an individual’s actions. Everyone is responsible for their own actions; and prejudice is an ugly thing. There are going to be those who will play the blame game on a particular race, religion or ethnic background; that is not ok. To know the truth of this horrible violence, we will have to wait for more information to know what is behind this violence. In the meantime we need to pray for those who were killed , injured or just traumatized; and, for their friends and families.
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