Make the Fort Hood Story What It Is

If ever there was a story in which we had to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, it was the events that lead up to mass murder at Fort Hood. On many levels, this is our worst nightmare. A terrrorist infiltrated our military and then used that position to commit an act of terror. That's a scenario straight out of 24. It's exactly the sort of a scenario that all of our new anti terror measures were supposed to avoid.

We still only know very small portions of the story, and yet, there is plenty we can already conclude. Depending on how one defines an act of terror, it's almost beyond any doubt that this was an act of terror. We know that he screamed "Allah Akbar" as he shot off his gun and so there's nearly overwhelming evidence that this act of terror was inspired by Islam. That makes him an Islamic terrorist. There's even growing evidence that Hasan was in contact with individuals related to Al Qaeda.

There's evidence that many colleagues and other individuals were concerned about his increasingly erratic behavior but they didn't want to report it for fear of being targeted themselves. One narrative that is emerging is the narrative of a military paralyzed by political correctness.

So far, a major portion of the media wants to whitewash many of these revelations. It was initially surmised that Hasan was suffering from PTSD. That was a very difficult thing to believe since he hadn't been in a war zone yet. He's contantly being referred to as a nut, someone who snapped, or crazy.

None of these descriptions do the story the justice that it deserves. He maybe a "nut" but that doesn't really tell us anything. In fact, it marginalizes and minimizes what should be examined. People don't just snap, they're not merely a nut, and all murderers are "crazy" somehow, but none of that explains how we got here.

Somehow a medical professional saw fit one day to shoot and kill his fellow military. That's a thought both frightening and unacceptable. It didn't just happen. In fact, it happened from a full system breakdown. Our system is supposed to be designed to identify exactly this sort of a problem and deal with it swiftly. Instead, Hasan was allowed to fester, to have his anger and radicalism grow, until he walked into Fort Hood and began shooting at random.

Long ago, our media stopped trying to report stories for what they are but for what they want them to be. The MSM wants this to be a story of an individual that snapped, and that's how they report it. The conservative media wants to believe that political correctness caused all this and that's the way they report it.

Unfortunately, this story is far too complicated to be turned into a cliche. The truth is far more complicated than boiling it down to political correctness and someone "snapped". A terrorist became a mole within our military and used that position to commit an act of terror. The story for how that happened is a very long and complicated one and it must be reported as it is, not as someone wants it to be.