It turns out that some of the soldiers gunned down at Fort Hood by U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan may in fact been shot by some of the military security who responded to the incident. They refer to it as “friendly fire,” not that there is anything even remotely friendly about it. I’d hate to be one of the first responders who arrived at the scene and instead of saving people, it turns out actually contributed to the overall casualty count.
That’s a heavy burden to carry around in your head for the next fifty years.
Of course it’s not their fault. The fault rests squarely at the feet of Maj. Hasan.
The part of this whole tragedy that bothers me the most is the Maj. Hasan did what he did while wearing the uniform. The fact that he could murder his fellow soldiers while wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army seems incredibly perverse to me. In the military, you are taught to respect the uniform. It represents more than just clothing, it represents all those who have served.
I’m not big on symbolism, except I guess when it comes to the uniform of the U.S. military.
On a positive note, it seems Maj. Hasan is in really bad shape. He’s in a coma, on a respirator, and the doctors are saying that if he lives, he will probably be paralyzed.
Malik Nadal Hasan, a 39-year old U. S. Army major opened fire with two handguns at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 12 and wounding another 31. Most of those shot were U.S. soldiers processing their paperwork for an up coming deployment to Iraq and/or Afghanistan.
