Posted by
Steve on Friday, November 06, 2009 7:14:04 PM
The pundits on all sides have already sharpened their claws for battle to own the narrative of Fort Hood. Nidal Malik Hasan was a terrorist. Hasan was overwhelmed by stress. Hasan, Hasan, Hasan...
Any
or all of the theories now being bandied about may turn out to be at
least partly true. Accounts need to be confirmed and motives need to be
determined and eventually this must all be sorted out. Lost in the
immediate rush to over-analyze and jump to conclusions about what this
all may mean, however, are 43 very good reasons for putting the brakes
on the sound bites:
The victims. 13 dead and 30 wounded.
Gone
are 13 children and parents and siblings and friends. The wounded will
carry memories of fallen comrades and loved ones that they will never
again hug or laugh with. Why Hasan did it and whether there are broader
issues in play in the tragedy will be the subject of investigation for
quite a while. For now, however, it is proper only to deliver a single
message to the victims and to those they left behind:
Our
thoughts and prayers go out to you. These were not victims sacrificed
in the line-of-duty but rather victims of a slaughter rendered by a man
troubled by inner demons we can only surmise for now. All 43 deserve a
hero's thank you for their service and may God bless them and the
families and friends they left behind.