Avoiding questions is the wrong answer
In the past few years, it seems like every time we have a chance to lean back and really work on a problem - climate change, health care, nuclear proliferation or the economy - something else comes along and derails the train. In an America where millions of adults take medication for attention disorders and entire generations have learned over the years that any problem, no matter what its size, can be fixed in 21 minutes, our focus was ripped away again last week.
In the early hours of the tragedy at Ft. Hood last week, great pains were taken by both Army personnel and national media that people should not jump to any conclusions about the accused shooter, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and the fact he was Muslim. It seemed a reasonable request. After all, the U.S. justice system is built upon an assumption of a defendant being not guilty until proved otherwise in a court of law.
Then, details of Hasan began to leak out to the public.
He allegedly yelled "Allahu Akbar!" (roughly translated to "Allah is great") while firing on the unarmed soldiers.
He allegedly began trying to get out of his Army commitment years ago because he did not want to engage against Muslim combatants.
He allegedly gave a lecture at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in which he said that nonbelievers should be beheaded.
He allegedly told colleagues that he sympathized with suicide bombers and their attacks on U.S troops overseas.
He allegedly had been trying for months to get in contact with Al Qaeda sources - a fact that the U.S. intelligence community was aware of.
The list seems to grow daily on all the tell-tale signs that something was very wrong with Hasan.
We are not suggesting that Hasan should have been watched more closely because of his religion or his name. That brings to mind the days of the Japanese-American internment camps during World War II. After President Roosevelt signed the order in the days following Pearl Harbor, more than 120,000 people were marched off to War Relocation Camps merely on the basis of their ancestry. It was certainly not one of America's finest moments.
What we are saying is that this is beginning to look like political correctness run wild. Fellow Army psychiatrists who either talked to or examined Hasan said they saw signs of trouble but were reluctant to say anything because of his religion. Nothing moved forward from his commanding officers or the intelligence community about the warnings.
And therein lies the problem. These doctors and Army personnel are put into positions of trust where they are expected to use their judgment to keep the rest of us - and in this case themselves - safe. To later say that they had suspicions but did not act upon them because of political correctness and his religion is as criminal as the shootings and possibly a dereliction of duty.
The time of not questioning because of political correctness needs to stop. If those same signs appear tomorrow, the person needs to be questioned whether they have an Arabic sounding name or are a blonde-haired Catholic from the Midwest. The families of the 13 dead at Ft. Hood can only pray the questions had happened sooner.
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