Major Hasan was not speaking to investigators, and much about his background ”” and his motives ”” were unknown.
General Cone said that terrorism was not being ruled out, but that preliminary evidence did not suggest that the rampage had been an act of terrorism. Fox News quoted a retired Army colonel, Terry Lee, as saying that Major Hasan, with whom he worked, had voiced hope that President Obama would pull American troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, had argued with military colleagues who supported the wars and had tried to prevent his own deployment.
As a parade of ambulances wailed to the scene of the shootings, officials said the extent of injuries to the wounded varied significantly, with some in critical condition and others lightly wounded. General Cone praised the first-responders and the medics who acted quickly to administer first aid at the scene.
“Horrible as this was, I think it could have been much worse,” the general said.
We should be wary of jumping to conclusions about Major Hasan’s motivation for his despicable act. We will know the background in due course.
The truly sad irony of this tragedy is that widespread firearms murder and mayhem was committed in the very midst of those most extensively trained, screened and capable of defending themselves against this type of threat. The problem is all military posts are essentially ‘gun-free zones’ where the only regularly armed good guys are the base law enforcement people. While it would be a bridge too far to allow all military personnel to be armed on post when off duty, I believe senior NCOs (E6/E7 and up) and mid-grade and senior officers (O3/O4 and up) should be encouraged to arm themselves on post by qualifying for concealed firearms carry as provided for by the local jurisdiction along with command approval for each individual. Just as this attack was stopped by a single person with ready access to a handgun, a greater concentration of armed known good guys could well have stopped this thing much earlier.
Amen, Dilbert! Amen!
A terrible thing.
Looking at the photos and reading about the victims on the NYT web-site, it seems fairly clear they fit a general description of ‘different from Hasan’, whether youthful, female, Asian, white, Latino (one young woman was pregnant, so there is an additional victim not being counted), white-American-male of any age….. Of course we will perhaps learn more since the shooter survives. This is an almost incomprehensible horror that would probably never have happened were it not for the PC and economic-rationalist environment that the government and its military are becoming. How much more can America take?
I’m glad this is within the jurisdiction of the army. I hope they have the courage to try this TERRORIST for treason and put him in front of a firing squad composed of the wounded.