Red flags at Fort Hood

Did the Army ignore "strong" warning signs that Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan was an Islamic extremist?

Fort Hood: Crime or Terrorism?
(Image credit: Corbis)

The U.S. Army is under fire as new reports about Fort Hood killer Maj. Nidal Hasan suggest that he was openly sympathetic to extremist Islamic beliefs. Colleagues say Hasan was given to "anti-American rants," attended a radical Wahhabi mosque in 2001, and gave a 2007 class lecture reportedly proposing that infidels (non-Muslims) should be beheaded. Sen. Joe Lieberman, who’s leading an investigation into this "terrorist act," says "strong warning signs" were there. (Watch Lieberman and others debate religion’s role in the killings.) Did the Army fail to avert tragedy by ignoring these red flags?

How did the military miss such obvious clues? I’m baffled why military brass didn’t intervene "long before [Hasan] snapped," says James Ragland in The Dallas Morning News. Hasan gave clear signs of being caught between "his military responsibilities and his Muslim beliefs." Such a "combustible cocktail" should have "set off bells and whistles with the Army’s brass."

"Somehow, all the red flags went unheeded in Fort Hood tragedy"

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Was the Army being overly political correct? Not monitoring or disciplining an Army officer who gives a med-school talk on jihad is "mind-blowing," says Andrew Sullivan in The Atlantic. Did the Army fear the repercussions of censoring a Muslim? If so, that’s political correctness “at its most lethal.”

“Yep, Jihad”

Let’s give the Army the benefit of the doubt: It’s entirely possible "that 'the Army' had no idea" that Hasan was a ticking time bomb, says James Joyner in Outside the Beltway. Hasan’s leaked "psychological evaluations were apparently well within normal range," and it’s not uncommon for officers to express "bitterness at missions they don’t believe in." Despite our "natural desire to…make sense of tragedy," claims that the military is knowingly letting enemies infiltrate our ranks are "unhelpful."

"Hasan a Muslim first, American second?"

Consider history before you assign blame: Hindsight is 20/20, says USA Today in an editorial: "As fans of mystery novels know, it’s always easier to connect the dots after you’ve read the book." It’s worth noting that after similar tragedies—Columbine in 1999 and Virginia Tech in 2007—"the most oft-repeated phrase" was also: "Warning signs were missed."

"Red flags at Fort Hood"

........................................................

SEE MORE OF THE WEEK'S COVERAGE OF FORT HOOD:

Fort Hood: The Al-Qaeda question

Fort Hood: What the world is saying

Sunday Talk Show Briefing: Religion's role in Fort Hood (Video)

Fort Hood: Obama's "flippant" speech

Who is Nidal Hasan: A timeline of the suspect's life

What Kimberly Munley's heroism means

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us