My initial five or six draft postings on this issue found their way to the cutting room floor because of the outrage I felt over the loss of life at Ft. Hood. My outrage has shifted from the shooter to the enablers of this tragedy: the people who passed the buck at Walter Reed.
According to the linked article by NPR, several members of the psychiatric staff at Walter Reed asked if MAJ Nidal Hasan was psychotic? If fellow military mental health professionals questioned the stability of this guy, why was he allowed to remain in the service? ore importantly, in the current state of heightened awareness of military suicides, why would the Army continue to employ an unstable mental health provider to counsel soldiers who may be considering taking their lives?
Nidal Hasan should have been forced out of the military but someone did not want to get sued. Instead Hasan was transferred to Ft. Hood. The decision makers at Walter Reed and the Pentagon wanted to get this guy away from D.C. This quote from the NPR article says as much – “so officials figured there would be plenty of co-workers who would support Hasan — and monitor him.” Translation: send Hasan away and let someone else deal with him.
This failure of making a difficult decision cost the lives of soldiers who were preparing to deploy. They transferred Hasan because they did not want to get their military careers tarnished by getting caught up in a discriminatory lawsuit. The officials at Walter Reed, and the people who approved the transfer, should be sued for being criminally negligent and tried as accessories in the deaths at Ft. Hood. Bottom line: Nidal Hasan should not be the only person spending time in a military prison.
Faculty, Department of Political Science, Towson University. Graduate from Liberty University Seminary.