2009.11.06
Did you know Nidal Malik Hasan?
The suspect in the Fort Hood shootings is identified as Nidal Malik Hasan, a Virginia Tech grad.
According to Virginia Tech records, Nidal Malik Hasan first enrolled at Virginia Tech for Summer Session II in 1992, and completed coursework in Spring Semester 1995. He received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in biochemistry from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He minored in biology and chemistry.
We're looking for anyone who knew him. If you did, please contact reporter Tonia Moxley at tonia.moxley@roanoke.com.
We have more on the story here.
I did not know Maj. Hasan but as a retired Army Officer, I see the need to set a few facts straight before folks go off half-cocked. Fist and foremost, let's not forget that Maj. Hasan was born and raised in the US and his parents were apparently faithful to the good instincts of their faith with no indication of radicalism. He overcame several intense hurdles to get his education not the least of which was his enrollment in the Uniformed School of Militar Medicine which is the military version of medical school. They only select the cream of the cream of the crop. He already had several years of successful military experience at this point and there was no indication of any problems. He apparently had some difficulty maintaining the very tough and grueling requirements of the miltary's medical school and received less than perfect annual evaluations. Thousands of soldiers receive unfavorable evaluations every year but they are not singled out automaticaaly as terrorist. The Army did not fail in not recognizing a problem in fact the Army did its job perfectly in giving an honest performance evaluation to an Officer in which the Army had spent so much time an effort to build and train. It is probably true that he spoke against the war in the Mideast but that does not make him un-American, in fact it makes him the ideal citizen who is not afraid to speak out about an issue in which he has strong personal beliefs. At some point, Maj. Hasan suffered a total mental collapse. I am not a doctor, in fact I am a retired Intelligence Officer with no medical training other than routine first aid training. I have seen soldiers in battle "lose it" and begin to kill indiscrimately. It didn't take a doctor to diagnose this collapse of moral obligations. Maj. Hasan "lost it" and he began to kill indiscrimately. He did not do this out of some devious Islamic right of passage or Muslim obligation. He killed because he had lost hos moral compass and now we must attend the funerals of those who died as a result of this breakdown. He will be required to pay for his collapse and the world will continue. Some will hate what he did and some will hate the religion he practiced, falsely believing it was the catelyst of his collapse. Maj. Hasan was born and raised as our neighbor in the US. His collapse must, of necessity, been caused at least in part by the daily stresses and barriers we all face as Americans in an American society. As a retired soldier I carry a deep sense of sadness and remorse for the loss of any soldier for any reason. Nothing in the news media that I have learned thus far would indicate that anyone failed to "recognize" this threat and no one in the miltary at any level was negligent in their duty and obligations to the miltary and the civilian populace they serve. I believe this with all the experience of twenty years of honorable service can give me. Let's keep it real and not make this something that it it isn't.
"AIRBORNE SIR"
Comment by Eugene A. Lesman — November 8, 2009 @ 9:38 am