History teaches us that the real tragedy about Fort Hood is that it will recur.
Today we debate whether this was the first terror attack on American soil since September 11, 2001, an instance of a madman on a rampage, or a failure in vigilance to act upon signs that Major Hasan had been exhibiting for several months.
We know Hasan had e-mail interactions with his former imam at the Falls Church, Virginia, mosque located on Route 7, less than one mile from one of the killings committed by the recently executed “DC Sniper”, John Muhammad. We ask whether the nameless, faceless “system” failed to tag Hasan as potentially dangerous or mentally ill – or something – because of political correctness (not wanting to paint all Muslims as violent jihadists) or some varying degree of incompetence up and down the Army chain of command.
At one level, answering these questions will be helpful. At another, it matters not. This event will recur. Not necessarily by a Muslim Army officer conflicted over his national duty and religious beliefs but by someone. Sadly enough – and we all know this – no matter how careful or thorough we humans strive to be, breakdowns over time are inevitable.
Talk about Hasan as an Islamic extremist misses the point. He probably deserves that label. So what? We also know that extremists of all stripes are among us and can snap at any moment. Talk about this being the first terror attack on American soil not only also misses the point, it is flatly incorrect. Note the DC Sniper reference above. If that was not terrorism, I need a new set of dictionaries to help me understand its true meaning. From an academic standpoint, one could easily argue that Muhummad’s 2002 killing spree was more stereotypical of terrorism as his targets were civilians. Of course, murder is murder, so it is not particularly helpful to put too fine a point of the nature of the victims.
We all lose if we cannot diagnose the circumstances around Hasan and his ultimate act of inhumanity. If those around him felt that they could not report his troubling words and attitudes because of his religion, then shame on them and shame on our system. This supports my premise that we are doomed to repeat Fort Hood, the DC Sniper killings, Oklahoma City, and the like. For whatever reason, the complexity of human emotions and behaviors will ultimately result in not taking that one necessary step that could ultimately prevent such tragedies.
Hopefully, people have thwarted many tragedies without our knowing, yet 100% effective we will never be. It is too easy for us to rationalize crazy behavior because we all feel stress and enmity towards others sometimes but doubt we or anyone else would actually act upon such feelings.
Sociopaths live in our midst. What about the serial killings now being investigated in Cleveland? Terrorism? Crimes? What does it matter? Until and unless our society can accurately identify people who pose legitimate dangers, we are doomed to repeat these scenes of horrors.
Fred W. Apelquist, III
© November 15, 2009
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