No mincing of words here, right to the point. I am horrified at what has happened at Fort Hood. I am saddened for the same reasons you are, and also for some you may not be - what I witnessed yesterday, at the world's largest Army base, in the greatest nation on earth and the most powerful military...was the Key Stone Cops meets High School Drama.
Again, as in my observations of the media..the information was fast and furious..yet the questions are the same?
Who, what, where, why and when? why...why....why....Y?Can this happen anywhere? Yes.
Can it ever happen on a US military base? Yes. However, the assumption, instantly, that this was some rogue 'off the bend, PTSD', guy made me furious. One, because it is a serious condition that many many veterans deal with on a day to day basis (which is a smack in the face to those who survive with it)
and - then I concluded that the military itself was as to blame for the knee jerk response of that assumption as was the media. I was watching, as were you as the lock down began, then the SWAT Team was brought in...........STOP THE VIDEO TAPE................THE SWAT TEAM???????? Can someone tell me why at FORT HOOD, the SWAT TEAM was brought in? I don't care what you quote me as far as procedure, what you may
'know' ,
what you know to be protocol.........I heard SWAT TEAM and said to myself...
"this is like a high school shooting for God's sake!"We then heard that military members on the base don't carry firearms - SOP or not, 'as you know it to be' or not...'when I was on this or that base' or not...........it was blow number 2.
Fast forward......military are rushing OUT of the buildings (although we did hear of the very brave who helped those injured and the stories of the saving of those in pain and you KNOW I am not dismissing that at all.) .....military are rushing to cell phones to call people, on the phone with media describing their 'being afraid, upset, shocked.." how, they, "were in Iraq and never had to go through such trauma"...STAY WITH ME....
Colonel Terry Lee, former co-worker of Hasan.."Hasan said Muslims should fight the aggressors" - That Haslan has said things such as these quite a few times. STOP THE VIDEO TAPE AGAIN............. Lee believed this was investigated by military, but he did not know the outcome.
The AP reported that Hasan was under investigation for internet postings in regards to suicide bombing..............FEEL FREE TO KEEP THE TAPE STOPPED.
Lt. General Cone..the shooter was dead, the
FEMALE FIRST RESPONDER OFFICER THAT SHOT HIM WAS ALSO DEAD (Later to be a 'take back') STOP THE DAMN TAPE AGAIN. IF you don't know what is wrong with that statement then come back to me when you do.
In the aftermath, a string of unanswered questions remained about the
shooter's motives, his background and whether the military was aware
that he posed a risk to his colleagues.
Addressing reporters gathered outside Fort Hood, northeast of Austin,
Army Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said of the incident: "It's a terrible
tragedy. It's stunning," adding that "soldiers and family members and
many of the great civilians who work here are absolutely devastated."
He (Hasan) was recently promoted and transferred to Fort Hood. STOP THE DAMN TAPE AGAIN..........
What I am now about to say needs to be said...deal with it. The last thing this nation needs to see is their US Army running around in a situation such as this as if they do not know their right hand from their left - panicked - chaos...in the face of an attacker...ON THEIR HOME TURF. I want you to try and PICTURE what the enemy sees...........go ahead and stop acting all offended......DO IT. Picture what they are saying right now. .......not a good picture is it............
In Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Iraq DAILY, they go through worse than what happened at Fort Hood.....how do they react? How do they cope? Do they need 'grief counselors' - do they need 'press conferences'? Do we accept excuses about the attackers? Stay with me..................
Then comes your Commander and says,
"Soooooorry we had a oopsie, the shooter I told you was dead, he is alive..and the first responder woman that shot him, she is alive too!" "There was hospital confusion." OH NO.......at this point stop the whole damn picture.
The questions about command, about security, about Hasan and his 'issues', about why the FBI, the SWAT Team and a first responder came in and helped to secure FORT HOOD MILITARY BASE.......are just the beginning of a realization that most of us have come to.......the US Military is not the military of our fathers, not in organization, not in instruction, not in mission, not in training and not in leadership.
Saying this is the hardest thing to say. I want to trust the US military command, I can not. I want to believe they can handle sending our men and women into battle, they can not. I want to see for my own eyes, the command structure and training come to fruition when trouble strikes, I do not. I want to see commitment by the President of the United States when his men are in trouble, I saw ineptitude and he was blind to the needs of his men. Do you see where this is going. This IS NOT about the men and women on the ground, never, no..it is about those in command, be it military or civilian. We have come from a place of confidence to a place of unease, confusion, disjointed goals.
The United States military sends a message when they react to a situation such as this - what happened was absolutely horrific..and from all accounts, it was absolutely (IN THIS CASE) PREVENTABLE. Until we begin as a nation..and indeed YES as a military to address the enemy, to straighten up and tighten up our own house, to use the M word and do so with clarity of purpose, to become a lot more Patton like and a alot less well.......MEOW like...we will see this infiltration more and more, and it will manifest itself with greater intensity.
What I watched today, in Fort Hood Texas...from the media to the military command was like a bad rerun of a bad movie...but the hardest thing to say is that these are ones in charge of our men and women now..and it comes from the top..and it has from many Presidents before this one..but with this one, the manifestation of mediocrity is UNACCEPTABLE TO ME.....
STRAIGHTEN UP YOUR HOUSE PENTAGON......WE WILL TAKE CARE OF THE WHITE HOUSE.......CONGRESS NEEDS TO GET INVOLVED AS WELL AS OVERSIGHT DEMANDS...I don't care where this faltering of military command began, be it correctness or multiculturalism Bill Clinton or Barack Hussein Obama.......it must end because the confidence of the US Military is something that can not be allowed to fail.