Enemy within the gates: The Fort Hood massacre

Soldier looks at a memorial to fallen soldiers at Fort Hood.
(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

It's a saying/quote attributed to people ranging from Sun Tzu, the author of Art of War, to Mario Puzo, the writer behind The Godfather films.

It's very catchy and, in many cases, good advice.

In the military, it's horrible advice.

As more and more facts are revealed, it's become apparent that Nidal Malik Hasan's religious beliefs played a role in his shooting spree at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas that left 13 soldiers dead and 42 others wounded.

Hasan's cousin, Mohammad Munif Abdallah Hasan, told CNN that Hasan wanted to leave the Army because he felt discriminated against. However, he does not believe Hasan's feelings of discrimination played a role in the attacks.

Said the cousin:

"If he had killed one or two, I could say that he was defending himself. I could say that there could have been a problem between two sides which led to the use of weapons. But for one to kill 13 people and injure more than 30, I personally don't think that it was because someone was bothering him. There is a bigger reason [emphasis mine] that this happened and no ones knows it besides Nidal."

A bigger reason indeed.

Witnesses say that before beginning his attack, Hasan, a U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, shouted "Allahu akbar", which is Arabic for "God is great" and is historically a battle cry for Islamic terrorists.

To tip-toe around this information or pretend it doesn't exist is political correctness at its worst.

It's the same political correctness that ultimately cost those soldiers their lives.

Hasan had raised red flags over the years, but they were largely ignored. And those that were not ignored were eventually dismissed.

The Washington Post reports that as part of a final project for his residency tenure at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2007, Hasan gave a presentation saying the military should allow Muslim soldiers to opt out of fighting Muslim enemies.

A former classmate of Hasan's at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences told Fox News that Hasan once told classmates and professors:

"I hold the Shariah, the Islamic Law, before the United States Constitution."

Fox News also reported that in the months leading up to the shootings, Hasan tried to reach out to people associated with Al Qaeda and that he did so under the watchful eye of at least one U.S. intelligence agency. Said an intelligence official: "Hasan was on our radar for months."

This is just a sampling of the information about Hasan that has come out since the shootings.

In the days and weeks to come, military leaders will likely circle the wagons and contend there was no substantial evidence that could have led anyone to believe Hasan was a threat.

That is, of course, based solely on what we know thus far, complete nonsense.

Senator Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, has said there were "strong warning signs" that Hasan was an "Islamic extremist."

Added Lieberman:

"The U.S. Army has to have zero tolerance. (Hasan) should have been gone."

And that's the point.

Hasan didn't live in the civilian world. He wasn't some accountant who worked at a firm and who would occasionally denounce the war in Afghanistan and express sympathy to terrorists while filing taxes.

He was a military officer.

He took an oath stating he would defend the United States against all foreign and domestic enemies.

But his actions, in the past and up to the present, show Hasan had his fingers and toes crossed while taking that oath.

The military handled his situation with kid gloves.

They didn't want to offend or appear to be persecuting Hasan, so they pretended not to notice the warning signs.

The military acted like a manager at some accounting firm who didn't want to be accused of singling out an employee because of his religious beliefs.

And while they were tip-toeing around the issue, Hasan walked around and shot every other employee at the firm.

When did "all is fair in love and war" become "all (except questioning Muslim soldiers who are showing jihadist tendencies) is fair in love and war"?

Nidal Malik Hasan may have pulled the trigger that killed 13 brave U.S. soldiers and wounded 42 others, but political correctness helped make it possible.