Major Nidal Malik Hasan: Portrait of a Shooter
Next Wednesday, November 11th is the annual day of remembrance for soldiers who have fallen in battle, though I don’t doubt victims of yesterday’s mass shooting at the army base in Fort Hood, Texas will also be honored on Remembrance Day this year.
12 soldiers and one civilian were killed and 30 others injured when 39-year-old U.S. Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire at a processing center in the Fort Hood military base. Hasan was eventually shot and apprehended, though reports claim he is still alive and recovering from his wounds. This was one of the largest mass shootings in U.S. history, and the deadliest at an American military base in modern history. However, it isn’t the first case of fratricide in the U.S. Army in recent years.
In today’s issue of The Globe and Mail, a reporter states, “In May, a U.S. Army soldier was arrested after a shooting rampage at Camp Liberty in the Iraqi capital Baghdad that killed five people and wounded three more. That attack occurred at a clinic for soldiers suffering from war-related stress.
In 2005, in what was believed to be the first recorded case of “fragging” in Iraq, a U.S. Army sergeant was charged with premeditated murder in the deaths of two U.S. officers who were killed in an explosion at their base in Tikrit.
And in March of 2003, just days after U.S. troops poured over the boarder into Iraq, an American soldier was detained after grenades thrown into three tents exploded at a U.S. base in Kuwait, killing one soldier and wounding another 13.”
- Monica Cain, wife of soldier Darren Cain, fearfully waits outside Fort Hood during the shooting.
Many people are asking themselves why this happened, What could possibly have been Major Hasan’s motive for killing his own?
Of course, I don’t know the answer to this question. But I am anxious to hear what Hasan has to say about it, and therefore am thankful that he’s still alive. What’s known and thus far published about Major Hasan is that he is American-born of Middle Eastern decent, he joined the military as a psychiatrist before September 11, 2001, and openly opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s reported that he fought deployment to these war-torn countries for years, and often argued with soldiers who strongly supported the wars. Ironically, he worked with soldiers suffering from combat stress to help them overcome the effects of violence. Family and acquaintances of Major Hasan have described him as “mostly very quiet”, and “a good American.” Those who know Hasan have said there was no indication that he had radical religious ideals or would be capable of committing an extremist attack.
However, The Globe and Mail also reported that there had been an inquiry six months ago into Major Hasan’s activity on the web after he allegedly made Internet posts about suicide bombings and other war threats. A post under the name Nidal Hasan said, ““If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory.” Perhaps Hasan considered his attack a “strategic victory” in making a symbolic statement to the government about the affects of severe stress on soldiers. Or maybe he just lost it. Hard to say at this point.
His relatives have told the media that Major Hasan had been taunted for years because of his Islamic beliefs, and some of his family members suspect he was pushed to the edge by the abusive treatment from his peers and simply “snapped”. They also told the press that Hasan had become extremely devout to Islam following the death of his parents, though one of his cousins added, “Our religion does not support violence, as the West believes,” trying to quell concerns that the attack had been religiously motivated. Hasan’s family is pleading with the media not to make this a case of a Muslim terrorist brazenly professing his hatred toward America.
It is likely that Hasan was hoping to be killed by officers during the attack, ultimately avoiding deployment to Iraq but refusing to go down without a fight. It looks like Hasan was trying to escape his life, but until he speaks with officials, we can only speculate as to what drove Hasan to commit the mass shooting.
To me, this much is clear: the victims of the Fort Hood shooting are also victims of an unprovoked and unjustified war, as is Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who was obviously terribly troubled by the American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and would fight at all costs to avoid being forced to support a war he didn’t believe in. Benjamin Franklin said, “There never was a good war or a bad peace,” and I agree. War is a product of ego-driven greed, and it is the worst crime against humanity.
