tragic losses - may the victims rest in peace and may their families know no further sorrow

If this terrorist hates America so much, why didn't he just leave the American military and join his brothers in a Muslim country? Ugh, I'm disgusted.

My sister and her two young children live, work and go to school on base at Fort Hood. Their school was on lock down and in a blackout for about seven hours after this animal went on his rampage. It shakes me to my core to think it could have been them. As Mr. Avrech has said of past victims of terrorist atrocities - May Their Blood Be Avenged.

As much as many in the media want to dance around his religion, I find it hard to believe the fact he is a devout muslim is not going to be relevant.

Lets keep the wounded and killed in our thoughts and prayers.

And does anyone doubt that if Hasan had been a Catholic shooting up an abortion clinic, his religion would have been in every headline?

But somehow, like the Beltway sniper, the media tip-toes around any religious motives of muslim killers. Even Bush made sure to call it a religion of peace after 9-11.

Thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families...

I wonder what fate will hold for the gunman.

Its good he's alive. He's going to have to answer some tough questions.

Actually, it may NOT be good he's alive. He'll be given a platform to spew his hate and hurt the families of the victims even more. Then the New York Times and CNN will produce several profiles of him and his family that will dwarf any recognition given to the victims and their families. We'll also get 99 different statements from CAIR about how he is not a real Muslim. The ultimate dodge. Imagine if a bunch of Rabbis asked to comment on Bernie Madoff simply said he is not a real Jew? What a joke.

As Robert and others have said many times...

This is very simple:

Islam declared violent war on America 30 years ago.

Members of this religion promote this war at worst and simply excuse it at best from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia to Detroit to Fort Hood.

NO leading Muslim politician or cleric has ever stated that this war should end. The best we get is some half-baked comments against "violence" and NEVER a statement that America is in fact unworthy of being attacked.

Islam is the problem.

It is the most murderous and retrograde movement in the history of the world. Especially for its own people, but increasingly for everyone else. This is something Winston Churchill said 70 years ago.

Islan is diametrically opposed in every way to all the key beliefs we hold dear in Western society: democracy, equal rights for all, religious plurality, etc.

NONE of the above are accepted by Islam, period.

The hostage crisis, Khobar Towers, USS Cole, 9/11, etc. etc. etc. etc. How many more attacks before the American people and the feckless news media and politicians publicly declare that Islam is at war with US?

I am actually GLAD that shooter is alive.

I hope he is waterboarded (or worse), tried and executed for treason by a MILITARY TRIBUNAL. I also would like to volunteer for the FIRING SQUAD. I'm rusty, but my weapon isn't. And we shouldn't waste the expensive ammo, just use the cheap military issue stuff.

I am thoroughly disgusted with the media calling this a "TRAGEDY". It's not a tragedy, it was a open act of JIHAD, by a person who supported suicide bombers and Prez Hussein.

UGGG - THIS - Thank Hashem It's Shabbos (almost).

Tamarah:

Exactly! The ONLY questions the news media should be asking about this scumbag today are as follows:

1) If Hasan was openly stating his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan AND posting his admiration for homicide bombers, WHY was he not discharged?

2) Was some kind of politically correct policy of sensitivity to Islam the reason why this malcontent soldier was not dealt with sooner? Are you prepared to explain this shocking display of political correctness over protecting our own troops to the families of the victims?

How many more of these "Islamic Converts" are loose in the country? How many of these "time bombs" are being created in American Jails by Islamic clerics proselyzing?

Just heard on American Family Radio that the authorities have been watching this Major Hasan for 6 months. They must not have been watching too closely.

Thank you so much for pointing out that this was not a tragedy - it was an atrocity.

Would someone please buy Obama a dictionary!

Tragedy: a disastrous event, calamity, misfortune.

Atrocity/atrocious: extremely wicked, brutal, or cruel, barbaric, appalling, horrifying, utterly revolting,abominable.

Also, I appreciate your mention of the Hot Air updates. It's been frustrating trying to find the latest news on it.

Ariel was wise beyond his years to separate atrocity from tragedy in acts involving evil. And it reminds us that none of us know the time we have here - when our last day is.

Something that always irritates me is including the death count of the perpetrators in with the innocent.

And speaking of a tragedy, I learned last night that one of the Coast Guard crewman killed in the collision between the C130 and the Marine helicopter was a man who extended a kindness to me and my car club last Feb 21.

Adam Bryant was the Public Affairs Officer at the Coast Guard Station Sacramento - and while they don't normally give tours he invited me on base when I asked if we could have a tour.

He spent a good 2 hours giving us an orientation of their mission and then took us to the tarmac to see his "office" - an immaculate white and red C130 transport.

He said that they will fly almost out to Hawaii and help their sister squadron in San Diego on search missions.

He was killed doing what they usually do - trying to find a lost boater from Santa Catalina.

Adam was the co-pilot when the collision with the Marine copter, on a separate training mission, occured.

Tamarah and Jake,

If Hasan is executed by firing squad, I pray they use civilian .22s, not any military weapons. This creep does not deserve a Military execution. After WW2 Condemned Germans and Japanese were not offered firing squads as punishment for their atrocities. They were ignominiously hung.

PCD: Civilian .22's will do the job. Hanging is really too fast.

Jake: Your questions are intelligent and obviously well thought-out. Perhaps you can consider a new career as a journalist?

My darling Tuviya was a forensic psychiatrist and said that Obama is a sociopath who would lead Muslims to open season on Americans in America. He actually bought a shotgun, although he never had fired a weapon in any of his 51 years on this planet.

I am having mixed feelings about this. He died on the 17th and I am not sure if I am sorry that he did not live to see how right he was or glad that he is not here to see the flowering of the Obamanation. This is just hideous in the extreme and I wish he was here to explain it and put it into context. His equating of Obama to The Austrian (*spit*) unfortunately is becoming more correct as each day passes.

BTW - Hasan was not a convert according to his Palestinian family. He joined the military over the objections of his family.

Blaming it on "harassment", him "snapping" and murdering unarmed soldiers.

Gag me....

Since I don't know much about army life, I am wondering how is it that this psychiatrist had access to weapons? What does that say about the security at Ft. Hood? I also heard that he was working with a few other shooters? I'm sure he had help.

Also, wouldn't this be a red flag for any other Muslims who are in the American armed forces and would be essentially fighting against their own brothers? (ie. war in Afghanistan). The allegiance would naturally fall towards their own 'family' wouldn't it? At the very least, it's a conflict of interest.

May G-d help us!

Glad you all have made up your minds (based on SOMEONE'S NAME!) before anything has been released by authorities. Compassionate conservatism at its best.

Jon:

Common sense plus analytic powers based on historical context are most useful in evaluating acts of terror.

I am confused about why this man re-uped (is that the expression?) over and over again for twenty years if the alleged harassment was so terrible. I don't doubt he heard some ignorant stuff, even experienced some negative stuff, but what else would a non-stereotypical soldier expect? (Not that it makes it OK at all, but certainly something one should expect.)

I am also confused about why he would sign up over and over again, continue to serve over and over, seeing very clearly that from the first Gulf War onward the conflicts in which the US Army would be engaged would very likely focus heavily on the Middle East.

On top of all of this, he's an Army shrink who by definition would be exposing himself to the most stressed and damaged soldiers, who are very likely carrying around some of the worst stories about what they experienced fighting in Muslim countries. I'm sure the man heard stories that were extremely difficult to hear, probably heavily focused on the worst stuff soldiers experienced and participated in, right? He intentionally put himself in this position. I'm baffled by this ridiculous man.

Dear Jon: We're also making up our minds based on the fact that he shouted "Allahu Akbar."

I am wondering what Jon thinks, now that we know this assassin was in contact with Al Qaeda. I'm betting we will never know, but I am also betting Jon's mind has been made up that this guy suffered from PRE-traumatic stress disorder-though, as Charles Krauthammer said tonight, we must have missed the epidemic of psychiatrists shooting up their patients.

First, I must say that the only thing that bugs me more than people calling such horrors "tragedy" is the constant repetition of his name.

Such people should NEVER be named - if we MUST call them something then their name should be legally changed to "scumbag#42" or whatever's next in series. Personally, I think they should be banned from the pages of history. NOONE will ever know who you are...

Second, killing and burying will only make him a martyr to his fellow death-cultists - an example (to their twisted cult's belief-system) to be imitated.

I am quite serious when I say that such vermin should be handled as follows:

Their carcass should be fed to a pen of special pigs kept solely for the purpose. The pigs' excrement should be used to fertilize crops on a special plot of land, and the harvest used to feed the pigs.

When the pigs age and die, their carcass also should be fed to their replacements - and so on, and so on...

In sum, we should endeavor to ensure that every molecule of their pathetic being spends a virtual eternity - for as long as G*d allows - in a repeated trip through the bowels of pigs.

Call it "porcine-molecular justice."

We should let it be known that ANY jihadi, anywhere on the planet, will receive this treatment.

It's quite literally the only thing I can see that may deter them.

This could be done at very minimal cost, and I honestly believe it would be effective...

DD

Darn - I forgot the one thing that made me post...

As to the ridiculous "harassment" claims: This vermin was not some "grunt" - he was a MAJOR. An "Officer." Even without all the ridiculous political-correctness, there's simply NO WAY he was EVER harassed. Ask anyone with Military experience -- the very suggestion is patently ludicrous on its face.

Nothing could be more ridiculous.

No Way.