Major Nidal Malik Hasan: the Hater as Victim

I wonder if "innocent until proven guilty" applies to Nidal Malik Hassan. President Obama cautioned in a TV appearance that we should rush to judgment until "we know all the facts." However, I suppose we can draw conclusions about thirteen dead soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas. They were heroes, and they were shot down with malice at the hands of a man they had accepted into the brotherhood and sisterhood of military service. Must I add that obligatory but often absurd word required by the legal profession: Allegedly?

Already, there are obvious indications that these murders are being handled as a psychological matter rather than the political and human tragedy it is. Here's a bit of what some people are saying about Nidal Malik Hasan:

The Army major who killed thirteen people in a Fort Hood, Texas shooting spree was frustrated, harassed by colleagues and superiors, and opposed to military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. To sympathizers trying to develop this narrative, it won't matter that the military has been for many decades an all-volunteer force and that one swears to uphold all lawful orders whether one agrees with them or not. Nor will it matter that Hasan was commissioned an officer with little of the extreme hardship and sacrifices borne by most members of the military, enlisted and officer class alike, and inclusive of their families. It won't matter to terror apologists that Major Hasan went straight from college to a highly paid, privileged, and prestigious military job that required little in the way of military orthodoxy, except for the primary condition of being taken at your word to serve and protect the United States of America.

There were ominous clues regarding Hasan's vicious attack, but few clues were significant enough to warrant intervention in today's climate of political correctness. Hasan was reported on CNN to have obtained counsel to assist with his complaint of being harassed by the military. That the military paid for Hasan's education and that he owed the Army years of service for the educational costs incurred, and for the contract he signed, does not enter into the equation for those disposed to explain away the losses and damage done to self-sacrificing people who protect and defend America. We must now protect sensitivities in preference to lives.

There is developing now a "blame the Army" contingent which questions whether the Army selection procedures may not have been proactive enough in diagnosing and containing Major Hasan. This rationalization was introduced on CNN where Alexis Witt advanced the notion with Retired Colonel Jack Jacobs, employed by the network as a military consultant.

"The Army might have flagged him for deployment" said Colonel Jacobs, a decorated Vietnam veteran.

While Jacobs noted there were plenty of behavioral indications of Hasan's state of mind, he appeared to scorn the idea that an army major operating in the medical corps could have been subjected to any particular harassment or unusual stress. The same question was raised by Jane Skinner on the Fox Network with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, who seemed to have succumbed to the strained liberal logic. Hutchinson was content with the favored mantra of Mass Murder Redux--Hasan was merely a "deranged person."

"Despair and anger" and "not terrorism" was cited by another CNN professional, Roger Cressey, former national security council staffer and sometime former foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama. Cressey sounded like an amateur psychologist, cautioning against applying a "broad brush" in making any links to terror.

The major news networks say they have confirmed with the military that Hasan received his orders for overseas deployment. Neighbors said Hasan told them he was cleaning out his apartment to get ready for deployment. The cleanup was premature-Hasan wasn't supposed to be deploying until after Thanksgiving.

The unmarried 39 year old Hasan is reported to have kept a 300 dollar apartment off base, unusual for an officer who could stay in the more comfortable and free Officer's Quarters. According to acquaintances, Hasan was rarely if ever seen in uniform and had begun to wear traditional Muslim garments-robes and white hat. Witness reported that Hasan shouted the traditional exhortation of militant Islam before he opened up-- "Allah Akhbar!"

For his part, Robert Gibbs was unable to respond to a reporter's question during a press briefing today.

"At what point does an attack of this sort become characterized as a terrorist attack?"

Press Secretary Gibbs was dismissive as he advised the reporter to ask that question of the FBI. I'm not sure that answer is "transparency" of the sort that Barack Obama espouses but no doubt the FBI will note that Nidal Malik Hasan looks like a duck and walks like a duck. With the newly imposed limitations placed upon domestic and foreign surveillance operators under the Obama administration, however, it remains an open question as to whether they will be able to identify him publicly as a duck.

Sources: Article content was derived from continuing coverage from CNN and Fox News television channels.