Tragedy at Fort Hood

Just to introduce myself, I am a veterans daughter, wife and mother. Most recently, a mother. My son, formerly attached to the 101st Airborne out of Ft. Campbell, was one of the first to enter Afghanistan, among the first to enter Iraq, served three deployments there.

What do we do now? America responded to 9-11 as only Americans can....how will we respond to this? Already we are pointing fingers, already the talk is about Muslims, already we are blaming...anyone and everyone. How sad. when will we rally? When will we open our hearts and respond to the families of those killed and injured? Will we at all? In my mind, this is worse than 9-11.

November 6th, 2009 8:47 am ET
In response to the shooting at fort hood base, in very short statement if you realy need and want to understand what happenend; do not put your head in the sand and close your eyes like the ostrich and say it is a single incident as it will be every time a single incident. this is the fast and sure way to go heaven in the Islamic religion and if you confince by something else, well it is too bad as it will not get any better as a matter of fact it will get worse.
By the way I grow up with those people and I know not only their religion but also how they think! I hope you will a chance to read and nuderstand this message before it is too late or the next ( individual single incidet as you brefer to call all of them). And may be yhe next would in your station, who know?

This is either a case of Home Grown Terrorismt or a "Sleeper". How ever he got his instruction, he was mentally alert, thinking clearly at all times of his premeditated plan. Thus the multiple guns. Just like OKC or 9/11 then time to strike is when and where they least expect and usually in a place the enemy feels safe. Our military bases should always be on heightened alert. Why would the military have to depend on city police officers to protect them?

The very first thing is to insure that prayers and sympathy is extended to all of the soldiers and families involved. No one expects something like this to occur in what should be considered a safe haven. It sounds like the follow up investigation is well under way. In your discussion of PTSD one of your guests mentioned the options available to soldiers that question or have doubts about thier mission. Another guest said he believed that the suspects should have better understood the Army's mission. As a former Army officer I have witnessed the Army's mission change drastically in a short time and it remains unclear. It's always going to be difficult to train for and treat PTSD from these missions but in recent cases we are our trailing in our training and treatment.

It's a great tragedy what happen at Fort Hood. First of all, I want to express that I am not a racist. But I think the time has come for the U.S. military to re examine the personal records of military personnel of Muslim decent. If this tragedy has happen once, What's to say it will not happen again.?

Good morning..In the face of the REALITY that over a dozen people are dead and many more wounded , with dozens of witnesses , it is disheartening and a dishonor to those who lost their lives to use the word " alledged " . Granted its likely a legal advisement from in house legal representation , or simply CNN protocol , yet regardless sometimes it seems ridiculous to not call it as it is . CNN is not a court of law and need not sidestep the truth . Its sad that management within CNN and other news providers choose such a route when service members and civilians without a doubt lost their lives engaged in the lifestyle and process of defending of our basic rights, including free speech and the possibility that CNN or anyone misinterpret the news . Not that one email makes a difference to anyone on this matter , but it does to me . Sometimes being impartial is an excuse for apathy and cowardice in standing for obvious truths , to whom that may concern .
k

My son was in the readiness building Thursday morning but had to pick up his son at school because of a half day. Otherwise he would have been in the building when this tradegy occurred. My heart aches for the families of this heinous crime and our prayers are with them. There but for the grace of God go I.

Dear CNN,

This is an important story and I am not detracting from other comments, but hey, you're obsessing again. There is other news.

Thank you,

Good morrning ,
i would just like to say I am in the navy as active duty. i want to send my thoughts and prayers to all the families whoes loved ones were involved. I am deeply hurt by the actions this person thought he had to do. i pray for all the famlies and people that god leads their hurt and pain to an end.
V/R
CSSN CAITLIN MOST
god bless our troops, the families back home and the USA!

I'm sure that my hard working tax dollar, which I have earned over my lifetime, helped pay the salary of this disloyal terrorist. This monster should never have been allowed to treat our wounded vulnerable soldiers! What a shame, our dedicated and sacrificial soldiers had to die or be wounded on American soil, especially on a military base . My thoughts and prayers are with those wounded and their families.

It takes a special person to serve in the military,not everyone can do it.This country needs to understand the pressure,the stress,the physical training that never stops,weekend duty,worry over thier families,seperations from thier families,killing another human being that you would never do in civilian life and NEVER ENOUGH PAY OR RESPECT from the nation they protect.You are pushing the military and thier families way past any burden anyone should bear while the rest of us sit on our collective behinds and spout support for our troops,paste stickers on our cars and call ourselves PATRIOTIC ! When are we going to enlist and take on this job,when are we going to leave our families for a year and dodge bullets,what do we sacrifice?MY son is going,my husband retired from the navy,WHAT ARE YOU GIVING TO THESE PRECIOUS PEOPLE ??

My thoughts and prayers to all those involved. I would hope that everyone would wait for the facts to come out before we start pointing fingers. Yes, this was tragic and, god forbid, can happen again. It is not realistic to think that our military bases/posts, anything that could become a target, can be 100% protected. If someone is dedicated to their mission it can happen. I really hope that this was just one deranged person, that lost it! It is bad enough for our brave and magnificent military to suffer through multiple tours in combat, but with this discipicable & cowardly act they are now faced with "where the heck am I safe"?

Im SGT Barker and im currently in Iraq with 1-5 CAV out of Ft. Hood. He is a coward! Just didnt want to deploy! Nothing over here would cause you to shoot your fellow soldiers. Ive been deployed twice nothing is that bad you have to kill your brother in arms.

While stationed at Ft. Hood, my husband asked for help after our teenage son committed suicide. The needs of his unit always came first. Definitely, more understanding and resources need to be a top priority when so many lives are coming apart.

Let me get this straight. The shooter at Fort Hood was upset about being deployed and killing fellow Muslums, but was able to go on a killing spree in his own Country leaving 13 families to pay for his dispair? We can talk about what "caused" him to do this forever, but the fact of the matter is that he took innocent lives, leaving our Country to grieve once again. We cannot predict such events and as a result we can never be safe. No war can change that. My sympathy and prayers to all of the families who lost loved ones in this sensless tragedy.

Perhaps now would be a good time to pick up a copy of Sgt. Clint Van Winkle's book "Soft Spots." Sgt. Van Winkle describes his 8 months experience as a marine in Iraq. The book is filled with experiences Van Winkle is expected to have as a marine in a war. What is riveting about the book is Van Winkle's unexpected experience with true PTSD and, his struggle to get the serious medical care he was so desperately seeking. My fear is we have not even begun to see the real cost of war to our young soldiers. Moreover, The VA does not seem to be adequately prepared for the onslaught of victims who will clearly need serious treatment for PTSD.

This is a terrible tragedy for the families, but this is exactly what thousands of families are going tru in afghanistan, lebanon, palestine, and iraq. It is time to stop the endless killings in the middle east. Killing begets more killing.

My heart goes out to the families of all of the injured, and killed. How sad that a "trusted" mental health professional could betray these soldiers. It is hard enough that he was a member of our nations military, but a professional person that is trusted with the emotional pain and anguish of others,and employed to help others through these issues. The betrayal runs deep, how sad for these soldiers and their families. This could also have an impact on the trust between therapist and soldier, the soldiers that witnessed this massacre may have a difficult time seeking counseling by a professional. I think also that if the authorities were already watching this man, that maybe they should have investigated further into his blogging, that clearly shows his betrayal of our military and our nation. I question why he was able to continue without questioning about these statements made about suicide bombers on his blogs? He was obviously not true to his uniform or our nation and the soldiers who have died for our freedom. This is apparent, and he should be punished to the furthest extent of the law.

We hope Obama send the major Hasan he is a terriost againt our country needs to go death row also the health care of the congress just past STINKS. thanck you nina pope fl.

Kind of mess up about what happen, But this is what we get when we drop the standards of soldiers in the military. Also last year a white soldier shot and killed a black Sgt , and it got about the same air time as my son pee wee team winning there first game. It's seems to me that the media is saying that the lost of white soldier is more Important that the lost of African American.

The first thought going through my mind was "I hope it was not a Muslim doing the shooting". It was not a sleeper as we understand sleeper as David suggested.

Government, Industry, Finance, Academic, Military, Media, Religion(spirituality+ethics) and the Peoples. There are no transmissions going back and forth as much as is picked up as all Muslims known to attack those structures. They need no instruction at this point in time and incidents will increase.

To create an incident where every Muslim is put under heavy watch turns into violent confrontations. A fire within each nation will grow and anarchy will follow.

Leaderships are afraid to talk diplomatically with China because of the influence China may have over the development of Afghanistan for example. Troops could have been brought home much sooner for the wellness and betterment of all Peoples if not for the flawed mentality of our leadership.

Condoning the actions of Major Hasan would be totally absurb however, I am sympathetic to the claims of constant hassrassment and maltreatment from fellow Soldiers. I am currently serving in the miitary in Columbus, Ga and have complained constantly to my Chain of Command the displaying of reprisal. I have submited documentation to several Army agencies, such as the Department of the Army Inspector General as well as 3 Congrssional inquiries and the Army continues not to provide the rebuttals and exhibits to the Congressional inquires, therefore to conclude with a fair assessment of the situation. When you have a military that is turning an ear to legitimate issues and the Chain of Command continues to neglect the Soldier's emotional well being after attempting to request help, you only find it when situations like the one at Ft Hood happens.

Fort Hood was a true tragedy, but we cannot blame Muslims and Arabs.
The people who I know are good Americans–devout and productive.
We did not target Scottish-Americans after the Oklahoma City bombings.
The idea that Muslims cannot serve in the military is nonsense–the Nazis considered themselves Christians (although their actions were
the antithesis of Christianity). We never had any qualms about fighting in Europe against "brother Christians". Our Muslim soldiers and citizens deserve our support–this is a huge tragedy for them as well.

Good Morning,

It seems that the focus is on Hasan being Muslim. Has anyone taken into consideration the fact that being a Psychiatrist, and hearing the horror stories from returning soldiers over and over, and then being told he was going to be deployed.......maybe that was enough to cause this man to react in such a horrific way. Not because of his religious beliefs. Just a thought.

We have people already talking about giving up their freedom in order to feel more safe, I guess they didn't lose enough rights under the Bush Administration, so now they want to lose far more.

Benjamin Franklin was right in saying that:

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

I am so tired of weak kneed so-called Americans willing to be slaves to government for a since of fake safety! This is the problem with a Democracy vs. a Constitutional Republic type of government; the mob is always a coward and is willing to lose everything because of fear!

I was a Army wife and we were stationed at Ft. Hood in the early 80;s and early 90;s as a ex military wife my heart goes out to the soilders ,the family and the whold military community .Being stationed their for 9 years and living in Killeen and Ft. hood doing our time their it was quiet but, now is a new day! Its sad and hurtful because the military is stressful with or without war .My mind and heart often goes to Ft. Hood any ways for the troops and their families doing this time of wars .The only thang I know is prayer for every one, and God will bring PEACE in the mist of this storm.God bless american and Ft. hood........

We are talking about Major Hassan's conduct and its backlash against Muslims. Why there is no discussion by the New York's emergency room physician who went to Israel and opened fire on Muslims at the Al-aqsa mosque. I think, his name was Farook Goldestein or something like that.
The majority of Muslims have condemend Dr. Hassan's criminal act. However, in looking for the reasons for such behavior, one should also look in to the circumstances under which Muslims in America have been put by the Israeli Lobby which benefits by such acts. Because CNN and other mainstream media is controlled by the Israeli Lobby, we are not wiling to talk about it. Right?

Of course, Islam as a religion should not be held accountable for Mr Hasan's horrible act. Anymore than Christianity should be held accountable for incidents such as the Waco or the Jonestown tragedies. All of these people USE religion to fuel their fanatic beliefs. THEY themselves are the problem. Not religion. As a Christian I have been raised to believe that killing is a sin – just like any Muslim also believe. We all have more in common than in disagreement. However, as history proves over and over and over again, a minority of fanatics decide to force their outlandish ideals on the majority and pick other fanatics to carry out their senseless ideas through murderous mayhem and chaos.

Mr Hasan CHOSE to murder those innocent people. He is NOT crazy. He KNEW what he was doing. He, and he alone, DECIDED to be a traitor and commit a terroristic act on his fellow humans. He CHOSE to kill. He CHOSE to be evil. He CHOSE his destiny.

Are the shooting victims at Fort Hood eligible for the Purple Heart? I do not think the are eligible, I hope I am wrong.

@ "Gay Riggs November 9th, 2009 8:57 am ET

Of course, Islam as a religion should not be held accountable for Mr Hasan's horrible act. Anymore than Christianity should be held accountable for incidents such as the Waco or the Jonestown tragedies. All of these people USE religion to fuel their fanatic beliefs. THEY themselves are the problem. Not religion. As a Christian I have been raised to believe that killing is a sin – just like any Muslim also believe. We all have more in common than in disagreement. However, as history proves over and over and over again, a minority of fanatics decide to force their outlandish ideals on the majority and pick other fanatics to carry out their senseless ideas through murderous mayhem and chaos.

Mr Hasan CHOSE to murder those innocent people. He is NOT crazy. He KNEW what he was doing. He, and he alone, DECIDED to be a traitor and commit a terroristic act on his fellow humans. He CHOSE to kill. He CHOSE to be evil. He CHOSE his destiny."

I agree with you 100%. It truly was a "terrorist" act.